MANUAL  ARTS 
FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS 

By  FRED  D.  CRAWSHAW,  B.  S.,  M.  E. 

Professor  of  Manual  Arts,  University  of  Wisconsin. 

Author  of  "Problems  in  Furniture  Making" 

and  "Metal  Spinning." 


THE  MANUAL  ARTS  PRESS 

PEORIA,    ILLINOIS 


COPYRIGHT    1912. 

FRED  D.  CRAWSHAW. 


Fourth  Edition,  1920 


TO  MY  PARENTS 

WHO    MADE    IT    POSSIBLE    IN    MY    YOUTH 

FOR  ME  TO  RECEIVE  THE  KIND  OF  AN 

EDUCATION      FOR     WHICH     THIS 

LITTLE     BOOK     MAKES     AN 

APPEAL. 


2065961 


PREFACE. 

The  agitation  of  industrial  education  during  the  past 
few  years  has  made  all  teachers  of  the  manual  arts  in 
elementary  and  grammar  grades,  as  well  as  in  the  high 
school,  consider  the  question  of  the  sufficiency  of  their 
subject  and  the  efficiency  of  their  teaching.  If  the  man- 
ual arts  were  first  introduced  into  the  public  schools 
for  the  purpose  of  making  boys  and  girls  more  efficient 
community  workers  and  if,  after  twenty-five  years  of 
instruction  in  the  manual  arts,  it  is  found  that  boys  and 
girls  are  still  unable,  when  they  leave  school,  to  meet 
reasonable  community  demands,  then  something  should  be 
done  to  change  this  condition.  Certainly  the  public 
schools  should  be  held  responsible  for  an  education  which 
will  enable  the  youth  of  our  land  to  perform  a  service 
upon  leaving  school  immediately  profitable  both  to  them- 
selves and  to  the  community  at  large. 

If  one  is  to  receive  a  profitable  return  from  a  wage- 
earning  occupation  he  must  prepare  particularly  to  do 
what  is  required  of  those  engaged  in  the  occupation.  A 
vocational  tendency,  therefore,  must  obtain  somewhere  in 
the  process  of  education.  Inasmuch  as  the  large  majority 
of  those  at  any  time  enrolled  in  the  public  schools  must 
find  a  means  of  livelihood  early  in  life,  it  is  imperative 
that  the  public  schools,  even  in  the  lower  grades,  offer 
an  opportunity  for  vocational  work. 


6  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

It  is  because  of  this  necessity,  and  because  America  is 
so  largely  industrial  that  industrial  education  has  recently 
become  prominent  as  a  subject  not  only  for  discussion  in 
educational  circles  but  for  action  in  legislative  bodies. 

Believing  that  the  manual  arts  should  and  may  have  a 
prominent  place  in  that  branch  of  vocational  education 
known  as  industrial  education,  the  author  has  urged  upon 
his  auditors  in  classroom  and  lecture  room  the  need  of  a 
reorganization  and  an  extension  of  the  manual  arts  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  newer  education.  If  by  means  of 
publication  his  appeal  can  be  made  to  a  larger  number  of 
people,  this  book  will  serve  its  purpose. 

May,  1912.  F.  D.  CRAWSHAW. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. — A  GENERAL  DISCUSSION  OF  THE  RE- 
LATION BETWEEN  MANUAL  TRAINING  AND 
INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 11 

Make  all  manual  training  broadly  educational  by 
giving  to  the  process  a  social,  economic  and  in- 
dustrial significance.  Take  manual  training  out  of 
the  dilettante  stage.  Manual  training  justified  upon 
an  historical  basis.  The  work  of  educational  re- 
formers in  developing  manual  training.  Democrat- 
izing conditions  changed  from  political  to  industrial. 
A  need  for  an  education  which  will  prepare  for 
any  walk  in  life. 

CHAPTER  II. — SOME  POSSIBILITIES  AND  OPPOR- 
TUNITIES IN  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE 
MANUAL  ARTS 22 

The  present  failure  to  recognize  manual  training 
as  a  possible  means  in  vocational  education.  The 
public  schools  must  serve  the  masses.  A  system  of 
universal  education  necessary.  The  place  of  manual 
training  in  such  a  system.  The  line  which  divides 
manual  training  and  vocational  education.  The 
school  must  articulate  with  the  community  as  a  part 
of  it.  The  time  and  place  for  specialization.  What 
can  be  done  with  present  organizations  to  meet  the 
needs  of  today.  The  problem  one  which  demands 
both  change  and  additions.  How  to  proceed.  Some 
limitations.  Industrial  education  not  industrial 
training.  A  parallel  course  of  study  including  both 
vocational  and  non-vocational  opportunities  for  all. 


8  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

CHAPTER  III. — THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  TEACH- 
ING OF  THE  MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  ELEMEN- 
TARY GRADES 29 

The  lower  grade  manual  arts  may  savor  of  in- 
dustrial processes.  They  should  deal  with  edu- 
cational material  in  the  bulk,  but  must  emphasize 
fundamentals  in  various  processes.  Some  values  of 
lower  grade  construction  work.  Manual  training 
vs.  busy  work.  The  most  appropriate  form  of  lower 
grade  construction  work.  Materials  used.  The 
elements  of  technique  and  skill.  Three  illustrations 
of  manual  training.  How  the  manual  arts  in  the 
lower  grades  may  emphasize  the  economic  and  in- 
dustrial in  life  and  still  retain  the  cultural  values. 
The  lower  grade  manual  arts  must  be  taught  by  the 
regular  teachers  as  a  means  to  the  general  end 
sought  in  education.  The  individual  and  the  class 
project. 

CHAPTER  IV. — THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  TEACH- 
ING OF  THE  MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  GRAMMAR 
GRADES  43 

The  place  to  realize  economic  needs  and  begin  to 
prepare  for  the  necessity  of  making  a  living.  The 
grammar  grades  the  place  for  pre- vocational  work. 
The  beginnings  of  an  industrial  intelligence. 
Specialized  vocational  activities  demand  specialized 
school  instruction.  The  value  of  vocational  guid- 
ance. The  limitations  of  the  school  to  furnish  a 
complete  preparation  for  life  or  for  making  a  living. 
The  alternatives  for  the  grammar  grades.  Present 
experiments.  Size  and  condition  of  community  alter 
methods  of  solution.  Where  differentiation  between 
the  work  of  boys  and  girls  should  begin.  What  can 
and  should  be  done  to  vocationalize  the  manual  arts 
in  the  grammar  grades. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER  V. — THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  TEACH- 
ING OF  THE  MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH 
SCHOOL  60 

Two  general  groups  of  pupils  in  the  high  school. 
Methods  of  handling  these  groups  somewhat  differ- 
ent than  those  used  in  the  earlier  grades.  What  the 
high  school  must  afford  for  every  boy  and  girl. 
The  organization  of  the  high  school  to  give  the 
greatest  possible  opportunities  for  future  develop- 
ment. The  high  school  the  place  to  begin  industrial 
education.  Review  of  the  high  school  manual  arts 
movement  in  the  United  States.  The  manual  arts 
department  in  a  general  high  school  or  the  manual 
arts  high  school — which?  The  high  school  the 
place  for  skill  plus  technique.  A  classification  of 
manual  arts  departments  in  the  high  school  and  the 
purpose  of  each.  The  relation  between  the  work 
of  the  manual  arts  in  the  first  two  or  three  years  of 
the  high  school  period  and  that  in  the  senior  year. 
A  discussion  of  the  all-school  and  school-factory 
plans  of  providing  for  industrial  education  in  the 
high  school.  Some  real  needs. 

CHAPTER  VI. — THE  TEACHER  AND  SUPERVISOR 
OF  THE  MANUAL  ARTS 88 

The  teachers  of  the  past,  present  and  near  future. 
The  training  manual  arts  teachers  must  have  to 
make  the  needed  adjustments.  The  demand  for 
teachers  who  have  the  new  point  of  view.  The 
traditional  manual  training  teacher  or  the  artisan — 
which?  The  special  training  for  each.  What  the 
manual  arts  teacher  in  service  should  do  to  keep 
abreast  of  the  times.  The  supervisor  as  distinct 
from  the  teacher.  The  supervisor's  training  and 
duties. 


CHAPTER  I. 

A  GENERAL  DISCUSSION  OF  THE  RELATION  BETWEEN 
MANUAL  TRAINING  AND  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION. 

Because  we  often  estimate  school  work  in  memory 
values  or  in  terms  of  knowledge  rather  than  power,  we 
judge  the  work  of  the  manual  arts  superficially.  When 
we  see  a  boy  making  a  model  in  wood  we  are  at  first 
inclined  to  think  of  his  activity  as  physical  only,  because 
the  skilled  workman  in  doing  what  we  see  the  boy  do  is 
performing  a  task  which  requires  little  thought.  He  has 
done  it  so  many  times  that  with  him  the  work  is  almost, 
if  not  quite,  automatic.  Not  so  with  the  boy.  He  has 
not  reached  the  point  where  he  has  formed  a  habit,  but 
rather  he  is  working  through  an  experience  which  calls 
for  foresight  and  judgment  on  the  one  hand,  and  muscu- 
lar control  and  correct  vision  on  the  other.  He  is  pro- 
gressing in  a  truly  educational  process  and  developing 
power  thereby.  Incidentally,  he  is  coming  into  possession 
of  a  considerable  amount  of  knowledge. 

My  purpose  in  making  these  statements  at  the  beginning 
is  to  clarify  the  atmosphere  with  reference  to  what  educa- 
tion really  is.  Professor  W.  C.  Bagley  of  the  University 
of  Illinois  defines  education  as  follows: 

"Education  may  be  tentatively  defined  then,  as  the 
process  by  means  of  which  the  individual  acquires  ex- 
periences that  will  function  in  rendering  more  efficient 

11 


12          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

his  future  action."  J  It  may  be  in  the  manual  arts  shop 
and  the  adjustment  may  have  to  do  with  materials  as 
well  as  ideas.  It  would  hardly  seem  necessary  in  this 
day  and  age  when  men  are  called  upon  to  produce  re- 
sults under  conditions  which  never  existed  before  and 
which  vary  almost  as  rapidly  as  the  clock  ticks  off  the 
hours  or  even  the  minutes  of  the  day,  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  the  whole  man  must  be  trained  to  be  alert  and 
skillful  in  adjusting  himself  to  new  conditions.  It  isn't 
the  first  hand  knowledge  that  we  need  so  much  as  it  is 
the  grasp  of  a  situation  so  as  to  adjust  ourselves  to  it. 
Teachers  of  the  manual  arts  contend  that  in  order  to  do 
this,  one's  experience  must  have  been  of  such  a  character 
that  he  can  appreciate  the  problems  of  the  man  who 
works  with  his  hands  as  well  as  the  one  who  earns  his 
livelihood  by  virtue  of  his  mental  attainments  alone. 
Manual  training  serves  as  a  means  to  educate  the  in- 
dividual on  many  sides  by  giving  him  different  angle 
perspectives  and  by  familiarizing  him  with  world  materials 
which  the  classroom  subjects  alone  cannot  do. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  venture  the  statement  that  school 
work  in  the  main  does  not  effectually  place  the  individual 
face  to  face  with  conditions  as  they  exist  in  the  adult 
world.  Perhaps  it  is  impossible  so  to  reorganize  the 
work  of  the  school  process  that  school  children  will  realize 
their  individuality  as  members  of  the  community  outside 
of  the  school.  It  seems  possible,  however,  to  make  all 
school  work  relate  closely  to  life  problems  and  thereby 
to  the  real  tasks  of  life,  even  if  actual  performance  is 
impossible.  It  is  this  social  and  economic  significance 

1  The  Educational  Process,  by  W.  C.  Bagley,  The  Macmillan 
Co.,  p.  22. 


GENERAL  DISCUSSION.  13 

that  manual  training,  by  using  industrial  means,  should 
give  to  the  work  of  the  school. 

In  almost  every  state  in  the  Union  to-day,  teachers  and 
school  administrators  are  seeking  to  motivate  all  school 
work  and  to  give  it  a  life  value.  In  many  educational 
meetings  during  this  past  year  educators  have  plead  for 
a  closer  connection  between  the  life  of  the  school  and  the 
life  of  the  community.  Naturally  enough  the  manual 
arts  teacher  looks  to  the  industrial  activities  for  sugges- 
tions which  will  help  him  make  shopwork  and  drawing 
serve  to  tie  together  the  school  and  the  community  life. 
The  emphasis,  therefore,  which  is  being  placed  upon  man- 
ual training  to-day  is  this:  (1)  Give  the  shop  and 
drawing  problems  as  much  thought  now  as  they  have  been 
given  in  the  past  to  make  them  show  the  significance  of 
the  abstract  school  material.  (2)  Take  account  of  all 
the  discoveries  of  child  study  in  coordinating  properly 
the  motor  and  the  mental  elements  in  the  educative  pro- 
cess. (3)  Vitalize  all  school  work  by  strongly  socializing 
it.  Do  all  these  things,  which  manual  training  has  sought 
to  do  in  the  past,  but  do  one  thing  more  to  take  it  out  of 
what  some  have  called  the  dilettante  stage  of  development 
— make  it  strongly  industrial.  That  is,  give  every  shop 
process  an  industrial  rating  to  evaluate  in  the  child's  mind 
the  process  in  the  industrial  shop  and  a  similar  process 
in  the  school  shop.  Make  the  school  process  as  closely  as 
possible  a  duplicate  of  the  commercial  shop  process,  and 
still  retain  the  educational  values,  mental,  moral  and  all 
the  rest,  which  the  manual  training  of  the  past  has 
claimed. 

In  one  sense  of  the  word  this  is  not  far  from  the 
thought  which  must  have  been  in  the  minds  of  some  of 


14          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

the  early  educational  reformers  who  first  introduced  hand 
work  into  the  school.  The  Russians,  for  example,  intro- 
duced a  form  of  shopwork  into  the  Imperial  Technical 
School  in  Moscow,  which  was  good  progressive  hand  tool 
work,  and  which  had  as  one  of  its  ultimate  ends  the 
preparation  of  young  men  for  the  skilled  tool  and  machine 
work  in  government  shops.  The  first  manual  training 
school  in  the  United  States,  viz.,  the  St.  Louis  Manual 
Training  School  had  for  one  of  its  objects  the  training 
of  boys  for  superior  shop  positions.  In  both  of  these  in- 
stances, and  others,  however,  the  school  shopwork  was 
given  in  the  secondary  school  period.  When  later  on  it 
was  introduced  into  the  lower  grades,  the  prominence  of 
the  commercial  and  industrial  values  was  lost  sight  of, 
and  social  and  particularly  educational  values  took  their 
place.  Thus  the  issues  were  confused  and  during  the  last 
few  years  high  school  manual  training  work  has  become 
formal  and,  in  many  cases,  has  lost  its  possible  vocational 
value.  Notwithstanding  this  fact,  however,  there  has 
never  been  a  time  when  there  could  not  be  found  a  reason 
for  the  existence  of  manual  training  in  both  the  element- 
ary and  secondary  school  grades.  Since  the  beginning  of 
the  agitation  upon  the  motor  element  in  school  work  there 
have  been  not  a  few  of  the  strong  educators  in  each 
decade  who  have  argued  in  favor  of  the  physical  and  the 
manual  activities  in  the  school.  If  we  wish  to  justify 
manual  training  on  the  ground  of  its  having  an  historical 
setting  we  may  refer  to  a  long  list  of  educators  who  have 
in  a  large  measure  been  responsible  for  educational 
methods  and  who  have  given  their  testimony  in  favor  of 
manual  work  in  schools. 

We  learn  from  the  historical  writings  of  the  Ancient 


GENERAL  DISCUSSION.  15 

Jews  that  these  people  put  great  store  in  the  fact  that 
every  boy  should  be  possessed  of  a  trade,  and  in  their  edu- 
cational system  they  provided  for  one-half  day  in  regular 
school  work  as  it  was  pursued  at  that  time,  and  one-half 
day  in  the  shop.  During  the  last  few  centuries,  this  plan 
has  been  abandoned  in  many  countries  in  public  school 
work,  but  in  some  institutions,  notably  the  state  insti- 
tutions for  the  care  of  dependents  and  other  state  charges, 
the  plan  has  been  continued.  It  is  interesting  to  note  at 
this  time  that  it  is  again  coming  into  favor  in  public  edu- 
cational systems,  and  while  we  may  be  as  yet  loath  to 
adopt  it  generally  under  the  guise  of  industrial  education, 
it  is  becoming  more  and  more  popular.  Manual  training 
supervisors  and  directors  are  asking  for  more  time,  even 
though  they  do  not  request  a  half-day,  the  time  given  in 
the  reformatory  institutions,  for  their  work  each  day  of 
the  week.  In  many  instances  it  is  said  by  men  who  speak 
authoritatively  upon  manual  training  subjects,  that  unless 
more  time  is  devoted  to  the  hand  training  there  is  little 
use  in  presenting  the  work  at  all.  It  is  very  certain  that 
with  not  more  than  an  hour  and  a  half  per  week  devoted 
to  shop  and  drawing  (a  total  of  60  hours  or  less  than 
eight,  8-hour  days  per  year)  little  can  be  done  other  than 
that  which  is  referred  to  as  dilettante  or  amateurish. 

The  Greeks,  too,  in  the  early  times  presented  a  scheme 
of  harmonious  education;  it  possessed  the  elements  of 
moral,  mental  and  physical  education. 

Somewhat  after  the  plan  of  the  Ancient  Jews,  Luther 
preached  the  doctrine  of  practical  work  in  the  schools, 
and  Ulrich  Zwingli  said,  that  every  burgher  should  have  a 
handicraft  by  which  he  could  make  a  living.  "Were  this 
the  practice,"  he  said,  "we  should  be  rid  of  idleness,  root 


16          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

and    branch,    and   our   bodies   would    be   healthier   and 
stronger." 

"It  is  not  a  soul;  it  is  not  a  body  that  has  to  be  edu- 
cated," said  the  great  French  philosopher,  Michel  de 
Montaigne,  "it  is  a  man."  Down  through  the  ages  men 
have  believed  in  this  theory  until  it  has  become  a  law  upon 
which  all  education  is  based,  and  yet  how  far  short  of 
it  do  we  come  in  much  that  we  do  in  our  schools!  Of 
all  the  school  subjects,  however,  manual  training,  as  much 
as  any  other  one  subject  probably,  is  helping  to  make  this 
law  a  reality  in  modern  educational  methods.  Notwith- 
standing this  fact,  it  may  do  more.  It  may  help  educate 
the  whole  man  by  properly  utilizing  his  hands  and  his 
eyes  as  well  as  his  mind  in  his  general  development,  and 
more,  also,  to  acquaint  him  with  the  activities  of  those 
who  make  up  the  great  army  of  workers  whose  ranks 
such  a  large  proportion  of  our  American  youth  join  long 
before  they  complete  the  common  school  or  grammar 
grades.  Mr.  Bloomfield,  in  his  most  estimable  little  book, 
"The  Vocational  Guidance  of  Youth,"  says,  in  quoting 
the  Committee  on  Attendance  at  Continuation  Schools 
in  England  and  Wales,  "Unless  children  are  thus  cared 
for  at  this  turning-point  in  their  lives,  the  store  of  knowl- 
edge and  discipline  acquired  at  school  will  be  quickly  dis- 
sipated and  they  will  soon  become  unfit  either  for  employ- 
ment or  for  further  education." J  The  words  of  this 
quotation  refer  to  the  guidance  which  may  be  given  those 
who,  leaving  school  at  14  years  of  age,  may  and  usually 
do  enter  "blind  alley"  occupations.  Those  positions  which 
may  be  characterized  thus  are  destructive  of  life  work 

'The  Vocational  Guidance  of  Youth,  by  Meyer  Bloomfield, 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  p.  17. 


GENERAL  DISCUSSION.  17 

motives  and  are  alluring  only  because  of  their  high  initial 
wages. 

The  social  and  economic  conditions  surrounding  the 
youth  of  our  present  metropolitan  cities  did  not  affect 
boys  and  girls  in  the  same  degree  when  manual  training 
was  first  employed  as  an  educational  means.  When,  there- 
fore, we  hear  it  said  that  manual  training  has  been  a 
failure  we  may  justly  challenge  the  accuser.  Manual 
training  though  started  in  some  schools  to  prepare  boys 
more  effectively  to  cope  with  life's  problems,  has,  in  gen- 
eral, been  justified  upon  the  basis  of  its  cultural  value, 
and  it  was  because  of  this  value  that  the  older  educational 
reformers  found  a  reason  for  introducing  and  defending 
it. 

It  may  be  true  now,  as  it  was  in  former  times,  that 
this  branch  of  educational  work  may  be  justified  upon  this 
traditional  ground,  especially  so  for  that  class  of  public 
school  children  who  continue  in  school  work  beyond  the 
state  school  age  limit.  The  pressure  of  economic  neces- 
sity, however,  makes  it  imperative  for  many  to  leave  school 
early  in  life,  and  for  this  class  something  more  than  the 
purely  cultural  value  should  obtain.  If,  therefore,  we 
can  in  some  way  revert  to  the  content  if  not  the  method 
of  earlier  school  hand  training  and  retain  the  cultural 
value  as  well,  we  shall  accomplish  a  just  result  and  meet 
present  needs  for  both  classes  of  pupils  concerned. 

Comenius,  the  father  of  modern  education,  Locke, 
Rousseau,  and  others  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  gave  handwork  a  prominent  place  in  their  plans 
for  the  education  of  the  masses.  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel 
not  much  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago  evidenced  in 
their  great  work  for  education  a  firm  belief  in  the  develop- 


18          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

ment  of  the  physical  together  with  the  mental  to  produce 
the  Utopian  in  education.  "Man  only  understands 
thoroughly  that  which  he  is  able  to  produce"  is  a  Froe- 
belian  quotation  which  every  teacher  must  recognize  as  a 
fundamental  truth.  How  many,  many  times  have  we  had 
this  impressed  upon  us,  as  we  have  endeavored  to  convey 
to  others  the  ideas  which  we  possess.  What  better  way 
have  many  of  us  found  than  to  fashion  with  our  own 
hands  out  of  some  common  material,  such  as  clay  or  wood, 
the  object  which  expressed  to  others  the  information  we 
wished  to  impart?  If  this  is  true  with  us  in  our  lives, 
why  is  it  not  true  in  the  lives  of  our  pupils? 

History  in  a  multitude  of  instances  bears  testimony  to 
the  fact  that  manual  training  is  an  essential  educational 
means.  We  need  not  review  modern  history  as  we  have 
ancient  history  to  show  the  trend  of  thought  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  physical  activities  as  a  part  of  the  educative 
process.  We  know  that  in  Europe  to-day  and  in  our 
own  country,  the  manual  training  movement  is  spreading 
at  a  tremendous  pace.  It  has  had  its  pitfalls  to  be  sure. 
It  is  still  a  youthful  subject  as  compared  with  much  that 
has  a  prominent  place  in  the  schools.  It,  therefore,  has 
been  a  subject  of  much  criticism  and  has  had  to  develop 
in  spite  of  many  sad  mistakes.  It  doubtless  still  has  such 
a  development  to  make  that  in  a  few  years  we  may  not 
recognize  as  worth  while  any  of  the  handwork  of  today. 
But  we  shall  agree,  I  am  sure,  that  today  its  position  in 
the  curriculum  is  one  of  increasing  dignity  and  importance. 
Men  of  deep  and  broad  thought  are  helping  to  push  it 
forward. 

President  David  Felmley  of  the  Illinois  State  Normal 
University,  before  the  State  Teachers'  Association  of  Illi- 


GENERAL  DISCUSSION.  19 

nois  recently  said:  "The  best  values  in  manual  training 
are  in  the  habits,  ideals,  and  attitudes  it  fosters.  It  inter- 
ests many  pupils  who  are  not  successful  in  other  school 
studies,  holds  them  in  school,  imparts  new  zest  for  some 
of  their  other  studies,  and  gives  a  sense  of  capacity,  power, 
and  effectiveness  to  many  a  boy  who  is  almost  ready  to 
accept  the  teacher's  estimate  of  his  incapacity  and  worth- 
lessness.  To  strengthen  the  will  it  is  necessary  to  develop 
the  willingness,  the  power,  and  the  determination  to  think 
connectedly.  The  ordinary  school  studies  afford  many 
opportunities  for  complex  thinking,  but  many  children 
have  little  interest  in  abstractions.  They  must  think  in 
the  concrete.  Manual  training  is  interesting,  it  connects 
our  thinking  closely  with  our  doing."  *  By  this  connection 
the  achievements  in  life  are  made  possible. 

Dr.  W.  C.  Bagley,  Professor  of  Education  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois,  in  recent  lectures*  has  impressed  his 
classes  with  the  idea  that  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world 
is  not  happiness,  peace,  contentment,  or  long  life,  but 
achievement.  We  may  make  achievement  a  possible  ideal 
in  life  if,  by  the  proper  incentives,  to  achieve  becomes  the 
pupil's  goal.  It  is  possible  to  form  the  habit  to  achieve. 
President  David  Felmley,  of  the  Illinois  State  Normal 
University,  says,  "It  is,  however,  possible  to  form  a  habit 
of  completing  one's  undertakings,  of  being  deliberate  and 
cautious  before  acting.  Furthermore,  if  a  habit  has  been 
formed,  not  by  external  constraint,  but  voluntarily,  under 
the  inspiration  of  an  ideal,  the  same  ideal  may  create 

*  Illinois  State  Teacher's  Association  Report,  Dec.  28-30,  1909. 
Paper:      "The    Educational    Value    of    Manual    Training,"    by 
David  Felmley,  p.   101. 

*  Given   in    Summer   Session   of   1909    at   the   University  of 
Illinois. 


20          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

habits  in  other  fields.  Thus,  if  the  habit  of  neatness  is 
formed  through  the  pupil  taking  pride  in  a  clean  shop  and 
an  orderly  bench  because  of  his  fidelity  to  an  abstract  ideal 
of  neatness  and  order,  the  same  ideal  may  function  by 
creating  similar  habits  in  regard  to  his  clothing,  his  books, 
desk,  and  manuscript.  Now,  manual  training  leads  all 
other  school  work  in  its  power  to  develop  fidelity  to  ideals 
because  our  work  remains  as  a  visible,  tangible  thing  just 
as  we  have  made  it." ' 

Again  Dr.  Felmley  says,  "The  self-respect  enjoyed  by 
skilled  workmen  is  one  of  the  most  substantial  qualities  of 
good  citizenship.  Longfellow's  Village  Blacksmith  'looked 
the  whole  world  in  the  face.'  The  free  cities  of  the  mid- 
dle ages  owed  their  democratic  character  and  political 
capacity  to  the  members  of  the  gilds,  and  it  is  in  the  homes 
of  such  workmen,  next  possibly  to  our  farm  homes,  in 
which  our  best  citizenship  is  bred  today." ' 

In  this  statement  Dr.  Felmley  sounds  the  key  note  for 
the  transition  which  it  is  possible  for  us  to  make  in  our 
manual  arts  work  to  make  it  more  nearly  comply  with 
the  needs  of  the  time,  viz. ;  to  have  a  school  work  which 
will  at  every  possible  point  touch  life  as  it  exists  in  society. 
The  school  must  not  only  act  upon  and  for  the  commu- 
nity, but  must  be  a  reflection  of  the  community's  activi- 
ties and  thereby  become  a  part  of  the  community  life. 
The  manual  arts,  by  using  community  materials  and,  to 
a  degree,  at  least,  its  vocational  methods,  may  help  in 
this  process. 

•  Illinois  State  Teachers'  Association  Report,  Dec.  28-30,  1909. 
Paper:      "The    Educational    Value    of    Manual    Training,"    by 
David  Felmley,  p.  102. 

*  Ibid  p.  103. 


GENERAL  DISCUSSION.  21 

Thus  ft  would  seem  that  there  is  a  growing  realization 
of  the  needs  of  our  American  youth  for  an  education 
which  will  both  prepare  them  for  either  continued  school 
work  following  the  grammar  grades  or  for  service  in  a 
wage-earning  position  which  has  in  it  the  elements  of  a 
progressive  serviceable  life.  Men  and  women  must  soon 
be  trained  in  sufficient  numbers,  and  broadly  enough  to 
teach  the  manual  arts,  not  as  mere  workmen,  but  as  indi- 
viduals who  see  that  education  for  the  masses  today  means 
a  practical  and  a  broad  knowledge  of  many  things,  and 
also  a  specific  knowledge  about,  and  a  power  to  do,  some 
particular  thing.  To  secure  teachers  with  such  ideals  is 
a  difficult  task. 


CHAPTER  II 

SOME  POSSIBILITIES  AND  OPPORTUNITIES  IN  THE 
ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  MANUAL  ARTS. 

Some  experiments  which  have  been  made  in  recent 
years  to  provide  for  better  equipped  industrial  workers 
have  seemed  to  indicate  that  little  account  is  being  taken 
of  the  possibilities  afforded  by  manual  training  in  the 
public  schools  to  accomplish  in  part,  at  least,  the  desired 
results.  Unquestionably  the  trade  school,  the  special  in- 
dustrial school  and  the  continuation  school  are  each  and 
all  a  means  to  a  desired  end.  It  is  a  question,  however, 
whether  our  present  public  school  organization  may  not 
do  much  that  it  is  not  now  doing  to  aid  in  the  vocational 
education  movement.  If  adjustments  may  be  made  with- 
out serious  loss  of  any  inherent  good  qualities  in  the 
present  organization,  there  would  seem  to  be  little  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  duplication  by  creating  a  new  organiza- 
tion and  an  entirely  new  system  of  schools. 

With  renewed  vigor  we  are  asking  ourselves  three  old 
questions : 

1.  What  is  manual  training  for? 

2.  Whom  is  it  for? 

3.  How  can  it  best    prepare    the    recipients  of  its 

benefits,  individually  and  collectively,  to  cope 
with  the  present  industrial  conditions? 

22 


POSSIBILITIES  AND  OPPORTUNITIES.  23 

In  a  public  school  system,  whether  it  deals  with  the 
grammar  grades,  high  school,  college  or  university,  we 
cannot  provide  for  serving  the  classes  only.  We  must  in 
all  our  plans  consider  the  masses.  We  must  consider  the 
90  or  more  per  cent  whom  we  may  describe  as  normal 
in  physical  and  mental  possibilities.  For  the  masses  we 
must  make  a  provision  which  results  in  a  system  of  uni- 
versal education  in  which  "the  best  results  will  always 
follow  when  as  many  subjects  as  possible  and  as  many 
vocations  as  may  be  are  taught  together  in  the  same  school, 
under  the  same  management  and  to  the  same  body  of 
men."  1 

In  answer  to  the  question,  then, — "What  is  manual 
training  for?" — ,  I  would  say  that  its  purpose  is  to  play 
a  necessary  part  in  the  development  of  every  individual 
toward  complete  citizenship.  Does  this  mean  that  the 
object  of  manual  training  should  be  technique,  skill,  the 
capture  of  the  boy's  interest,  or  the  development  of  com- 
munity interests?  It  means  that  all  of  these  are  legiti- 
mate objects.  These  are  only  some  of  the  possibilities 
which  center  in  the  thought  that  to  keep  a  live  boy  in 
school  and  make  him  good  for  anything  when  he  gets 
out  of  it,  some  portion  of  his  time  must  relate  directly 
to  a  business  activity  outside  of  the  school.  This,  manual 
training  must  do,  if  it  is  to  maintain  a  responsible  place 
within  the  school  system. 

Assuming  now  that  every  boy  in  school  is  a  live  one, 
it  is  easy  to  answer  the  second  question, — 'Whom  is 
manual  training  for?' — ,  by  saying  that  it  is  for  every  boy 
in  school.  It  is,  therefore,  a  part  of  a  plan  to  provide 

1  Dean   Eugene   Davenport,  The   University  of   Illinois.     In 
a  bulletin  entitled:    "Education  for  Efficiency,"  p.  7. 


24          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

a  general  education.  It  is  a  part  of  universal  education 
or  education  for  efficiency.  We  would  conclude  from 
this  statement  that,  certainly  in  the  elementary  grades  and 
possibly  in  the  grammar  grades,  to  direct  manual  train- 
ing in  the  line  of  any  one  or  a  few  industrial  activities  is 
absurd.  If  manual  training  is  worth  while,  we  should 
never  give  up  the  idea  that  it  is  for  every  boy,  and  that 
it  is  just  as  important  in  his  plan  for  life  as  any  other 
subject  in  the  curriculum.  We  must  continue  to  believe, 
that,  for  the  mass  of  students,  none  of  the  grades  below 
the  high  school  is  the  place  for  specialization.  We  must 
become  resourceful  enough  either  to  give  a  form  of  man- 
ual training  which  involves  the  fundamentals  in  many 
industries,  or  else  we  must  enrich  our  equipment  by  add- 
ing to  our  present  shops  those  which  will  provide  for  the 
important  industries.  To  such  an  extent  a  semi-speciali- 
zation may  be  made  possible.  To  this  extent  only  spe- 
cialization should  be  carried  below  the  high  school  and 
for  those  only  who  must  go  into  wage  earning  positions 
before  the  high  school  is  reached. 

There  was  a  time  when  a  school  teacher  could  afford 
to  say,  because  of  the  limited  opportunities  in  active  life, 
that  one  individual  was  especially  adapted  for  a  profes- 
sional career,  and  another  for  some  one  of  the  industrial 
pursuits.  Today,  however,  when  we  have  an  almost 
unlimited  number  of  specialties,  it  is  not  within  the  prov- 
ince of  the  school-master  either  to  outline  one's  future 
by  positive  prediction,  or  by  such  an  arrangement  of 
studies  that  there  can  be  but  one  future  for  the  individual 
who  follows  the  arrangement.  We  must  confess,  how- 
ever, that  this  is  just  what  many  a  school-master  has 
done,  if  his  arrangement  of  studies  has  been  such  that 


POSSIBILITIES  AND  OPPORTUNITIES.  25 

the  sequence  of  grammar  school,  high  school,  college  and 
university  has  been  the  only  possible  one. 

We  have  been  altogether  too  much  interested,  if  we 
were  high  school  teachers,  in  keeping  our  school  on  the 
accredited  list  of  some  university.  What  we  should  be 
concerned  in  is  a  school  so  complete  that  its  proper  main- 
tenance may  mean  a  continuous  growth  for  every  boy 
toward  a  universal  education.  It  must  be  so  organized 
that  there  are  the  vocational  and  the  non-vocational 
courses  paralleling  each  other,  and  that  the  courses  in 
these  two  lines  shall  be  so  administered  that  whenever 
a  boy  steps  from  the  classroom  into  the  larger  school  of 
activity — the  office,  the  accounting  room,  or  the  shop — 
he  may  be  an  efficient  unit  in  his  surroundings.  My 
answer  then  to  the  question, — "How  can  manual  training 
best  prepare  the  students  individually  and  collectively 
to  meet  the  present  industrial  conditions?"  is:  by  in- 
creasing the  facilities  of  the  school  so  that  under  one 
management  and  for  all  its  pupils  it  may  articulate  with 
the  community  as  a  part  of  it. 

Long  ago  it  was  learned  that  every  man  must  have 
two  educations — one,  the  vocational,  and  the  other,  the 
non-vocational.  The  one  to  make  him  a  bread  winner, 
the  other  to  make  him  a  man  among  men.  Admitting 
now,  if  we  can,  that  the  schools  are  not  fulfilling  their 
obligation  to  society  in  this  respect,  and  that  manual 
training  teachers  are  shareholders  with  their  brother 
teachers  concerned  in  more  purely  academic  subjects,  what 
can  we  do  to  change  our  methods? 

Already  we  have  from  four  to  eight  shops  equipped 
for  wood  and  metal  work.  We  have  drawing  rooms  to 
provide  for  three  classes  of  mechanical  drawing  and  as 


26  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

many  classes  of  freehand  drawing.  We  have  science 
laboratories  for  practically  all  the  sciences  that  are  taught. 
If  now  we  should  provide  an  equipment  for  some  of  the 
special  industries  of  the  community,  such  for  example 
as  pottery,  printing,  and  weaving,  and  modify  the  courses 
in  the  shops  already  provided  by  giving  the  courses  of 
study  conducted  in  them  a  strong  industrial  tendency, 
we  would  be  able  to  meet  any  reasonable  demands  thus 
far  made  for  industrial  education.  The  transformation, 
then,  of  the  present  public  high  school  would  mean  a  com- 
paratively small  expenditure  of  money.  The  maintenance 
of  such  a  school  would  be  slightly  greater  than  that  of 
the  large  high  schools  at  present  equipped  for  a  variety 
of  work.  The  difference  in  this  particular,  however, 
would  not  be  great.  It  really  is  not  a  question  of  first 
expense  or  maintenance  expense;  it  is  a  question  of  pur- 
pose. We  can  do  the  thing  that  we  set  out  to  do  if  we 
are  all  agreed  upon  a  particular  plan. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  us  at  this  time  to  consider  defi- 
nitely the  kind  of  work  to  be  done  in  this  new  school. 
Let  us  hope,  however,  that  it  may  be  such  as  to  retain 
all  of  the  valuable  elements  in  our  present  day  manual 
training  work,  and  to  embody  also  such  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  industries  as  to  make  it  possible  for  a  boy,  when 
leaving  school  either  before  graduation  or  at  the  time  of 
graduation,  to  "make  good."  There  are  many  things 
of  actual  industrial  value  which  manual  training  teachers 
might  agree  upon  as  satisfactory  to  teach,  if  viewed  from 
the  standpoint  of  our  present-day  ideals,  both  educational 
and  industrial. 

It  is  believed  that  we  may  safely  say  that  some  of  the 
results  of  a  school,  such  as  has  been  considered  in  this 
illustration,  would  be  these: 


POSSIBILITIES  AND  OPPORTUNITIES.  27 

First,  to  control  under  a  single  management  the  whole 
of  a  boy's  education  in  school. 

Second,  to  educate  for  the  industries  rather  than  to 
train  for  them. 

Third,  to  enrich  the  industries  by  sending  into  them 
men  of  judgment  and  balance. 

Fourth,  to  emphasize  skill,  technique,  and  workman- 
ship by  the  employment  of  industrial  standards. 

Fifth,  to  prepare  young  people  for  the  actual  work  of 
life  while  they  are  being  given  all  of  the  refining  and 
uplifting  influences  which  the  non-vocational  studies  pro- 
vide. 

Sixth,  to  develop  a  system  which  is  not  at  all  times 
preparing  for  something  far  ahead.  At  whatever  point 
the  boy  might  leave  school  he  would  be  prepared  to  do 
what  is  one  of  the  hardest  things  for  any  of  us  to  do; 
namely,  to  adjust  ourselves  to  present  conditions.  Such 
an  adjustment  is  made  because  of  our  appreciation  of  the 
relation  between  the  means  and  the  ends  in  life;  and  it 
is  with  reference  to  this  relation  that  the  course  of  study 
in  our  new  school  must  be  designed. 

Regarding  the  limitations  for  industrial  education,  if 
the  plan  outlined  is  followed,  three  may  be  presented: — 

( 1 )  The  boy's  age.    We  cannot  expect  a  boy  of  four- 
teen or  fifteen  to  do  a  man's  full  work  no  matter  what 
his  preparation  for  a  man's  work  may  be.     The  schools 
can  never  turn  him  out  at  the  end  of  a  common  school 
period  as  an  A  No.  1   industrial  workman. 

(2)  His  natural   rights.     America  is  a    democracy; 
and  while  it  may  be  true  that  the  boys  of  100  men  50 
years  from  now  will  be  doing  much  the  same  thing  their 
fathers   are  at  present  doing,  still  we  cannot  prophesy 


28          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

truly  of  any  particular  one  of  them.  We  owe  every  nor- 
mal individual  a  chance  to  reach  one  goal — that  which 
the  best  equipped  individual  in  the  community  may  some 
day  reach.  He  and  not  we,  by  the  natural  law  of  selec- 
tion and  rejection,  must  find  his  place.  If  we  have  done 
our  part,  when  he  does  find  it,  it  will  be  comfortable 
by  virtue  of  his  broad  rather  than  his  narrow  education. 

(3)  His  natural  abilities.  Believe  what  we  may  re- 
garding our  being  born  into  the  world  as  equals,  we  know 
that  our  present  and  future  environment  limits  our  possi- 
bilities. No  matter  what  form  of  industrial  education 
is  attempted,  there  will  be  those  who  will  reach  their 
limit  short  of  our  expectation.  Let  us  not,  however, 
provide  such  a  course  that  they  shall  fall  by  the  wayside. 
It  is  perfectly  possible  when  they  discontinue  their  school 
education  and  commence  that  which  results  from  the 
more  active  and  broader  community  life,  for  them  to 
stand  instead  of  fall. 

Let  us  hope,  therefore,  for  industrial  education,  not 
merely  industrial  training;  for  the  parallel  course  of 
study  which  means  vocational  and  non-vocational  oppor- 
tunities for  all;  for  the  unified  system  which  economizes 
time,  space  and  money  for  the  boy  and  the  community 
of  which  he  is  a  part;  for  the  universal  education  which 
means  an  industrial  efficiency  as  well  as  a  social  efficiency, 
which  gives  hope  to  every  individual  for  something  better, 
but  which  for  every  station  in  life  gives  the  satisfaction 
that  can  come  only  when  we  feel  that  we  possess  a  reserve 
power  which  is  the  result  of  broadening  rather  than  nar- 
rowing influences. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  THE  MANUAL 
ARTS  IN  THE  ELEMENTARY  GRADES. 

Enough  has  been  said  thus  far  to  suggest  two  things: 

(1)  That  the  manual  arts  in  all  the  grades  of  school 
work  may  and  probably  should  keep  in  touch  with  voca- 
tional  and  especially  with   industrial   activities. 

(2)  That  in  all  grades  above  those  ordinarily  called 
elementary  the  manual  arts  must  have  a  strong  vocational 
bearing,  if  they  are  to  serve  their  full  purpose. 

In  any  form  of  educational  work,  even  in  that  which 
is  designed  for  those  who  did  not  receive  the  advantages 
of  an  early  school  training,  it  is  still  considered  good 
practice  to  lay  a  general  foundation  for  future  work  by 
considering  fundamental  principles.  In  the  teaching  of 
manual  arts  we  would  naturally  consider  the  elementary 
grades  the  place  in  the  school  process  where  material 
should  be  handled  with  regard  to  a  general  development 
rather  than  viewed  as  a  means  to  some  specific  end.  It 
is  in  these  grades  then  that  the  manual  arts  should  be 
taught  less  as  a  subject  and  more  as  a  method  or  process, 
— in  short,  as  a  means  to  a  general  educational  end. 
Manual  training,  then,  is  a  term  which  can  best  be  used 
when  speaking  of  the  manual  arts  as  taught  in  the  ele- 
mentary school  period. 

It  is  assumed  that  the  modern  school  methods  for  this 
period  do  not  consider  any  of  the  many  school  subjects 

29 


30          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

in  a  formal  manner.  Number  work  for  example  in  the 
first  two  or  three  grades  is  no  longer  taught  in  the  ab- 
stract. Indeed  it  is  not  taught  as  concrete  number  work 
even.  Facts  concerning  numbers  are  learned  by  the  first 
and  second  grade  children  by  means  of  association.  This 
example  suggests  that  all  educational  material  in  these 
grades  is  used  in  the  bulk  rather  than  in  parts.  The 
little  child  absorbs,  as  it  were,  a  certain  amount  of  infor- 
mation concerning  many  things  which  later  on  in  his 
progress  he  knows  as  arithmetic,  language,  geography, 
history  or  any  one  of  the  subdivisions  into  which  educa- 
tional material  is  divided.  Acting  upon  the  same  general 
plan  in  teaching  construction  work  (a  name  given  to  the 
manual  arts  in  the  lower  grades)  we  would  use  materials 
in  the  early  grade  handwork  whenever  they  can  be  made 
to  serve  the  purpose  of  broadening  the  educational  horizon 
of  the  child  better  than  any  other  available  means. 

It  may  be  well  now  for  us  to  consider  just  a  few  of 
the  things  which  construction  work  in  the  lower  grades 
may  be  able  to  do  for  the  child  in  the  process  of  acquiring 
general  information  and  gaining  power  to  discriminate 
and  assimilate  in  a  natural  way. 

First  of  all,  perhaps,  it  will  give  him  a  natural  outlet 
for  the  expenditure  of  his  physical  energy. 

Second ;  it  affords  him  a  means  of  social  occupation  in 
the  use  of  the  material  with  which  he  is  thoroughly 
familiar. 

Third;  it  gives  him  what  Dr.  John  Dewey  calls, 
"Modes  of  social  occupation  with  which  he  is  thoroughly 
familiar  in  his  everyday  surroundings."  J 

1  "The  Place  of  Manual  Training  in  the  Elementary  Course 
of  Study,"  by  John  Dewey,  Manual  Training  Magazine,  Vol. 
2,  No.  4,  July,  1901,  p.  194. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  ELEMENTARY  GRADES.         31 

Fourth;  it  enables  him  to  acquire  a  certain  technique 
and  a  degree  of  skill  in  the  simple  operations  which  are 
fundamental  in  vocational  activities. 

Fifth;  it  establishes  standards  in  neatness,  precision, 
judgment  and  the  cardinal  principles  which  obtain  in  all 
life's  activities. 

It  is  one  thing  to  theorize  and  quite  another  to  put 
one's  theories  into  practice.  Just  how  one  is  to  correlate 
the  construction  work  with  the  other  subjects  in  the  cur- 
riculum is  a  difficult  problem  in  any  grade,  but  nowhere 
probably  more  difficult  than  in  the  lower  grades.  What 
materials  to  use  and  when  and  how  to  use  them  are  sub- 
jects worthy  of  the  most  philosophic  consideration  coupled 
with  extreme  attention  to  practical  conditions.  The  word 
practical  is  used  here  because  it  is  believed  that  even  in 
the  elementary  grades  we  can  and  should  teach  life  at 
every  possible  point  consistent  with  the  best  educational 
theories. 

Indeed,  it  is  only  when  the  little  child  lives  in  a  natural 
environment  where  familiar  objects  and  association  of 
objects  are  common-place  that  he  finds  a  situation  in 
which  he  may  develop.  The  common-place  things  to  the 
child  are  those  which  exist  in  the  home  and  its  immediate 
surroundings.  This  very  fact,  however,  sometimes  be- 
comes a  barrier  in  the  early  progress  which  is  possible  in 
the  schoolroom.  To  give  relaxation  to  the  child,  the 
teacher  will  allow  certain  motor  activities  to  be  repeated 
again  and  again  which  are  well  understood  by  the  child, 
and  many  times  are  those  with  which  he  is  familiar 
in  his  home.  Such  motor  activities  are  commonly  called, 
"busy  work."  They  should  in  no  case  be  confused  with 
motor  activities  which  are  accompanied  by  an  active 


32  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

mental  process.     These  latter  activities  are  of  the  class 
known  as  manual  training. 

It  is  not  a  difficult  task  to  plan  a  course  in  hand- 
work which  may  be  good  busy  work  and  possibly  have  a 
value  in  training  the  hand  and  eye  and  developing  the 
child  in  new  habits  of  accuracy  and  neatness,  but  such  a 
course  may  not  be  good  manual  training.  If  the  theories 
thus  far  stated  were  to  be  summarized,  one  might  say 
that  the  best  course  in  manual  training  must  consider  not 
only  the  training  of  the  hand  and  the  eye  in  some  isolated 
occupation,  but  it  must  be  a  course  which  touches  the  life 
of  the  child  in  his  work  and  play,  in  school  and  at  home. 
It  must  also  be  a  course  which  acts  as  an  educational  flux 
in  joining  one  subject  in  the  curriculum  to  another.  It 
must  tend  to  show  the  child  the  relationship  between  the 
regular  school  subjects  and  his  outdoor  life — his  play  at 
present  and  his  possible  work  in  the  future.  In  short,  it 
must  be  a  course  which  makes  him  feel  his  importance  as 
a  living,  working,  social  being.  Such  a  course  may  be 
practical,  and  educational  as  well,  and  unless  it  is  practical 
it  will  not  be  in  the  highest  degree  educational. 

What  then  is  manual  training  according  to  such  a 
standard?  First  and  foremost,  it  is  a  course  in  hand- 
work dealing  with  elementary  industrial  processes  which 
have  a  place  in  present  industrial  life,  have  had  a  place 
in  the  industrial  life  of  the  past,  and  probably  will  have 
in  that  of  the  future.  Such  a  course,  from  the  stand- 
point of  educational  theory,  will  be  recognized  as  service- 
ble  and  practical  for  actual  schoolroom  conditions,  because 
it  will  allow  and  demand  a  correlation  with  geography, 
history,  language,  reading,  and  arithmetic.  It  will  be 
practical  from  the  standpoint  of  the  community,  because 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  ELEMENTARY  GRADES.         33 

it  will  teach  the  child  the  elements  of  the  occupations 
followed  by  members  of  the  community. 

In  the  second  place,  the  best  course  in  manual  training 
always  provides  problems  in  handwork  in  a  material 
which  the  pupils  can  handle  successfully  and  that  the 
teacher  understands  and  enjoys.  Some  courses  in  manual 
training  have  been  designed  which  require  the  children 
to  work  in  materials  too  difficult  for  them,  and  without 
regard  to  the  experience  and  ability  of  the  teacher.  The 
result  in  such  cases  may  be  to  give  the  children  a  relaxa- 
tion from  the  regular  book  work,  but  it  does  not  insure 
growth  in  good  habits,  either  of  thought  or  action. 

Thirdly,  the  best  manual  training  takes  account  of 
skill  in  its  inventory  of  educational  and  industrial  values. 
We  sometimes  hear  it  said  that  a  consideration  of  tech- 
nical processes  in  elementary  manual  training  develops 
merely  the  physical  or  manual  side  of  the  child's  nature 
and  loses  sight  of  his  mental  development.  If  we  consider 
the  mere  mechanical  operation  in  our  work  to  the  extent 
of  losing  sight  of  the  child  and  his  interests — the  material 
product  and  not  the  means — certainly  this  statement  must 
have  some  ground  for  being  made.  On  the  other  hand,  to 
allow  the  child  to  do  a  thing  as  he  pleases,  thinking  he 
will  readily  discover  a  good  method  of  work  through  his 
experiments,  is  neither  good  education  nor  good  common 
sense.  We  demand  the  best  books  and  the  best  teaching 
methods  for  arithmetic,  language  and  geography.  Why 
should  we  not  do  as  much  in  manual  training? 

To  show  more  clearly  what  I  mean  by  practical  and 
educational  manual  training,  let  me  give  specific  illus- 
trations. In  some  schools  where  a  large  number  of  pupils 
are  taught,  and  this  is  the  condition  under  which  work 


34          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

must  be  done  in  the  average  public  school,  it  has  been 
customary  for  the  supervisor  or  teacher  to  plan  in  detail 
each  exercise  that  the  class  must  make  in  a  given  course. 
The  material  is  selected  by  the  teacher,  and  each  pupil  in 
a  class  is  required  to  make  a  certain  thing  at  a  certain 
time.  Often  the  thing  made  is  of  no  value  to  the  maker 
after  its  completion;  it  is  simply  an  exercise  in  the  use 
of  certain  tools  or  the  handling  of  certain  materials.  The 
course  is  designed  to  teach  the  child  certain  definite  pro- 
cesses in  handwork.  In  such  a  course  the  child  may  enter 
upon  his  work  with  considerable  enthusiasm  because  he 
is  doing  something  with  his  hands — and  what  child  does 
not  love  to  do  things  with  his  hands?  Soon,  however, 
the  interest  in  the  mere  doing  is  gone,  except  for  a  few 
who  may  have  a  strong  liking  for  the  particular  tools 
used  or  have  exceptional  ability  to  work  in  the  particular 
material  chosen.  The  result  is  that  the  class  interest  is 
lost  because  the  child  is  not  treated  as  a  thinking,  feeling 
individual,  but  merely  as  part  of  a  system. 

Now  this  sort  of  manual  training  may  teach  good 
methods  of  handling  tools,  but  it  does  not  stimulate  the 
best  thought;  it  may  make  the  pupil  accurate  in  certain 
work,  but  it  does  not  make  him  accurate  in  judgment; 
it  does  not  strengthen  his  reasoning  powers.  Such  manual 
training  may  make  the  pupil  draw  neat  lines,  handle  a 
pencil  and  ruler  well  or  control  the  needle  in  making  a 
particular  stitch,  but  does  it  tend  to  make  the  child 
thoughtful  and  interested  in  drawing  or  sewing?  Prob- 
ably not.  Why?  Because  the  real  child  and  his  desires 
and  ambitions  have  not  been  considered. 

A  second  illustration:  The  supervisor  or  teacher  does 
not  plan  his  course  before  the  school  year  opens;  he  puts 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  ELEMENTARY  GRADES.        35 

his  own  judgment  in  the  background  and  waits  for  the 
child's  demands.  This  is  the  question  he  asks  on  the 
first  day  of  school,  "Well,  children,  what  shall  we  make 
this  year?"  The  answer:  "A  play  house  of  wood." 
Thus  the  work  for  the  year  is  chosen,  and  down  to  the 
shop  goes  the  class  from  the  third  and  fourth  grades. 
Without  any  instruction  concerning  the  use  of  tools  or 
the  value  of  wood,  without  any  knowledge  of  the  build- 
ing of  a  house,  saws,  planes,  hammers  and  nails  are  used 
to  mutilate  and  destroy  valuable  material.  And  what  is 
the  result?  One  of  two  things:  Either  the  teacher 
finally  makes  the  play  house  or  the  pupils  make  something 
they  are  dissatisfied  with  or  even  ashamed  of. 

This  sort  of  manual  training  may  develop  a  certain 
kind  of  individuality,  a  sort  of  self  reliance,  but  it  does 
not  train  in  good  habits  mentally,  morally  or  physically. 
We  shall  agree,  I  am  sure,  that  neither  of  these  illustra- 
tions suggests  the  kind  of  manual  training  we  want  our 
children  to  have,  yet  in  both  we  find  good  points.  Let 
us  take  the  good  from  each  and  use  it  in  a  third  illustra- 
tion. 

The  supervisor  selects  a  material  to  be  used  in  a 
certain  grade  because  it  is  used  in  the  community  in 
which  the  school  is  placed,  and  because  experience  has 
shown  that  it  may  be  used  successfully  by  children  of 
the  age  found  in  that  grade. 

He  plans  his  course  so  far  as  the  tool  exercises  or 
methods  of  manipulation  are  concerned,  but  he  does  not 
decide  upon  the  particular  thing  to  be  made  by  each 
pupil.  He  leaves  that  to  the  good  judgment  of  the  class 
teacher  and  desires  of  the  individual  pupils.  The  classes 
meet  and  begin  work  with  the  understanding  that  certain 


36          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

things  must  be  learned  before  they  can  do  well  what  they 
wish  to  do,  and  with  the  further  understanding  that  when 
the  proper  time  comes  they  will  be  permitted  to  work  out 
their  individual  plans.  Each  pupil  learns  to  handle  both 
material  and  tools  in  exercises  which  may  or  may  not 
have  a  value  in  themselves  when  completed.  While  this 
is  being  done,  the  language,  geography,  history  and  arith- 
metic are  incidentally  used  to  show  the  child  what  can 
be  done  in  his  manual  work.  When  this  elementary  work 
is  completed  each  child  uses  his  new  knowledge  and  new 
power  in  developing  his  own  individual  project  under 
the  supervision  of  his  teacher.  Now  what  is  the  result 
of  this  kind  of  manual  training?  Certainly  this:  Good 
habits  of  thought  and  action  are  formed.  Proper  methods 
of  working  with  tools  are  learned.  An  interest  in  the 
thing  being  done  is  kept,  and  results  which  are  worthy  of 
the  effort  put  forth  are  secured.  Self-reliance  and  indi- 
viduality are  developed.  The  pupil  becomes  both  a 
rational  thinker  and  a  careful  doer.  By  such  results 
practical  and  educational  manual  training  may  be  tested. 

Emphasizing  in  another  way  the  thought  which  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  above  paragraphs,  it  may  not  be  out  of 
place  to  say  a  word  concerning  the  process  of  recapitula- 
tion which  manual  training  has  sought  to  follow.  The 
theory  has  sometimes  been  this:  To  educate  the  child 
properly  we  must  provide  for  him  the  experiences  of 
primitive  man. 

"That  the  child  should  recapitulate  the  exact  external 
conditions,  performances,  and  blunders  of  primitive  man 
is  a  ludicrous  proposition.  That  he  should  assume  a 
similar  attitude  is  almost  inevitable.  The  former  con- 
ception leads  to  the  notion  that,  since  the  race  had  to 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  ELEMENTARY  GRADES.        37 

advance  out  of  the  errors  of  an  animistic  interpretation 
of  nature  to  the  truth  as  made  known  in  science,  the 
child  must  be  kept  in  the  mist  of  a  sentimental  and  myth- 
enwrapped  nature  study  before  he  can  deal  in  any  direct 
and  truthful  way  with  things  and  forces  about  him.  The 
second  conception  means  that  it  is  the  business  of  edu- 
cation to  get  hold  of  the  essential  underlying  attitude 
which  the  child  has  in  common  with  primitive  man,  in 
order  to  give  it  such  play  and  expression  as  to  avoid  the 
errors  and  wanderings  of  his  forefathers,  and  to  come  to 
the  ends  and  realities  toward  which,  after  all,  primitive 
man  was  struggling."  * 

To  work  from  the  concrete  to  the  abstract;  to  follow 
the  sensible  interpretation  of  the  recapitulation  theory; 
and  to  vitalize  the  work  of  text-book  study  are  prime 
motives  of  manual  training,  which  are  responsible  for 
many  courses  of  study.  Because  manual  training  puts 
the  theory  of  the  book  into  material  in  three  dimension 
form,  it  connects  the  theory  of  the  book  with  the  facts  in 
live  problems  and  vitalizes  the  whole  process  of  thinking 
and  doing.  In  this  way  the  child  gets  definite  and 
tangible  results  which  mean  much  to  him  as  a  measure 
of  his  success.  There  is  a  certain  relaxation,  too,  in 
changing  from  the  mental  activity  of  the  classroom  to 
that  of  the  shop  and  drawing  room,  where  the  mind  is 
allowed  to  work  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  hand  and 
eye.  "To  give  play,  to  give  expression  to  his  motor  in- 
stincts, and  to  do  this  in  such  a  way  that  the  child  shall 
be  brought  to  know  the  larger  aims  and  processes  of 

"The  Place  of  Manual  Training  in  the  Elementary  Course 
of  Study,  by  John  Dewey,  Manual  Training  Magazine,  Vol. 
2,  No.  4,  July,  1901,  pp.  195  and  196. 


38  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

living,  is  the  problem." '  In  the  construction  work  there 
is  a  certain  review  of  the  mental  impressions  obtained  in 
the  other  classroom  work.  Such  a  carrying-over  process 
tends  to  develop  attention,  discrimination,  organization 
and  logical  thinking. 

The  proposition  herein  set  forth  then  is  this:  For  the 
lower  grades,  let  us  use  the  most  easily  handled  materials 
which  have  an  industrial  significance,  such  as  clay,  card, 
yarn,  textiles  and  paper,  to  make  use  of  the  play  instincts 
of  the  child  through  motor  activity  which  forms  an  ac- 
quaintance with  actual  social  and  economic  problems.  In 
their  use  we  shall  consider  two  practical  elements  in  the 
school  organization,  viz., 

First: — Whether  or  not  a  supervisor  is  employed,  the 
classroom  teacher  in  the  lower  grades  must  be  the  in- 
dividual who  will  teach  the  construction  work.  She  is 
the  one  who  knows  the  actual  living  conditions  of  the 
classroom:  what  stories  are  being  told;  what  facts  in 
geography  and  history  are  being  developed;  when  the 
children  need  relaxation  the  most,  and  numerous  other 
incidental  but  most  vital  elements  in  the  successful  teach- 
ing of  little  children. 

Second: — The  plan  of  the  grade  teachers  or  special 
teachers,  as  the  case  may  be,  must  be  understood  in  order 
that  the  construction  work  may  work  hand  in  hand  with 
all  other  forms  of  school  work  in  developing  the  problems 
which  have  been  set  as  grade  problems  in  accordance  with 
the  general  course  of  study. 

As  a  rule  the  construction  work  in  the  lower  grades 

*  The  Place  of  Manual  Training  in  the  Elementary  Course 
of  Study,  by  John  Dewey,  Manual  Training  Magazine,  Vol. 
2,  No.  4,  July,  1901,  p.  198. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  ELEMENTARY  GRADES.         39 

will  be  divided  into  two  classes,  viz.,  the  group  or  class 
project  and  the  individual  project.  The  group  or  class 
project  is  one  in  which  all  members  of  a  class  participate. 
It  may  be  the  making  of  a  play  house,  or  building  on  a 
sand-table  the  home  of  some  one  about  whom  the  class 
has  studied,  as  for  example,  the  home  of  Robinson  Crusoe; 
or  it  may  be  the  working  out  in  miniature  form  some 
historical  scene  or  geographical  setting  as  told  by  means 
of  story  in  the  regular  language  work.  In  such  a  project 
each  individual  has  a  part  in  the  assembling  of  details 
which  make  up  the  whole. 

These  parts  which  are  assembled  will  give  an  oppor- 
tunity for  every  individual  to  make  some  particular  thing 
such  as  a  box,  a  house,  a  sled,  etc.  Or  the  individual 
project  may  be  one  which  is  called  for  because  of  the 
community  or  individual  activities  of  the  people  about 
whom  the  group  or  class  project  serves  to  form  an  im- 
pression to  be  retained  by  the  child. 

Thus  a  hammock  or  a  rug  may  be  the  individual  pro- 
ject in  the  making  of  which  the  child  becomes  acquainted 
with  certain  industrial  methods  as  used  in  some  vocation 
and  by  means  of  which  he  acquires  technique  and  some 
skill.  Incidentally  also  there  is  developed  by  means  of 
the  individual  project  at  least  some  appreciation  of  ac- 
curacy, neatness,  order,  etc. 

Perhaps  no  better  consideration  of  the  place  of  con- 
structive work  in  the  lower  grades  can  be  shown  than  that 
which  Dr.  John  Dewey  gives  in  the  following  quotation: 

"As  a  matter  of  convenience,  the  studies  of  the  elemen- 
tary curriculum  may  be  placed  under  three  heads;  this 
arrangement  is  also,  I  think,  of  some  philosophic  value. 
We  have,  first,  the  studies  which  are  not  so  much  studies 


40  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

as  active  pursuits  or  occupations — modes  of  activity  which 
appeal  to  the  child  for  their  own  sake,  and  yet  lend  them- 
selves to  educative  ends.  Secondly,  there  is  the  subject- 
matter  which  gives  us  the  background  of  social  life.  I 
include  here  both  geography  and  history — history  as  the 
record  of  what  has  made  present  forms  of  associated  life 
what  they  are;  geography  as  the  statement  of  the  physical 
conditions  and  theater  of  man's  social  activities.  At  more 
advanced  stages  of  education  it  may  be  desirable  to  special- 
ize these  subjects  in  such  a  way  that  they  lose  this  direct 
relationship  to  social  life.  But  in  elementary  education, 
of  which  I  am  speaking,  I  conceive  that  they  are  valuable 
just  in  the  degree  in  which  they  are  treated  as  furnishing 
social  background.  Thirdly,  we  have  the  studies  which 
give  the  pupil  command  of  the  forms  and  methods  of  in- 
tellectual communication  and  inquiry.  Such  studies  as 
reading,  grammar  and  more  technical  modes  of  arithmetic 
are  the  instrumentalities  which  the  race  has  worked  out 
as  best  adapted  to  further  its  distinctively  intellectual  in- 
terests. The  child's  need  of  command  of  these,  so  that, 
using  them  freely  for  himself,  he  can  appropriate  the  in- 
tellectual products  of  civilization,  is  so  obvious  that  they 
constitute  the  bulk  of  the  traditional  curriculum. 

"Looking  along  the  line  of  these  three  groups,  we  see 
a  movement  away  from  direct  personal  and  social  interest 
to  its  indirect  and  remote  forms.  The  first  group  presents 
to  the  child  the  same  sort  of  activities  that  occupy  him 
directly  in  his  daily  life;  and  re-presents  to  him  modes  of 
social  occupation  with  which  he  is  thoroughly  familiar 
in  his  everyday  surroundings.  The  second  group  is  still 
social,  but  gives  us  the  background  rather  than  the  direct 
reality  of  associated  life.  The  third  is  social,  but  rather 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  ELEMENTARY  GRADES.         41 

in  its  ultimate  motives  and  effects — in  maintaining  the 
intellectual  continuity  of  civilization — than  in  itself  or 
in  any  of  its  more  immediate  suggestions  and  associations. 
Manual  training,  constructive  work  (or  whatever  name 
we  may  care  to  employ),  clearly  belongs  in  the  first 
group  and  makes  up  a  very  large  part  of  it."  * 

Another  quotation,  taken  from  the  writings  of  Dr.  C. 
Hanford  Henderson,  will  serve  both  to  explain  the  mean- 
ing of  handwork  in  the  lower  grades  and  to  suggest,  at 
least,  the  difference  between  it  and  that  which  will  be 
considered  in  a  later  chapter  for  the  higher  grades. 

"The  task  proposed  for  itself  by  sloyd  (a  form  of 
manual  training)  is  exceedingly  subtle, — to  engage  the 
interest  and  spontaneity  and  affection  of  a  child,  to  culti- 
vate the  sense  of  beauty  and  the  finer  sense  of  touch,  to 
increase  the  general  bodily  health  and  poise,  and  finally, 
by  the  directed  and  purposeful  overcoming  of  the  resist- 
ance of  the  material,  to  give  power  of  brain  and  skill  of 
hand.  It  is  a  long  program,  but  sloyd  accomplishes  it 
successfully  just  in  proportion  to  its  fidelity  to  the 
practical  principle  of  cause  and  effect.  In  the  manual 
training  first  introduced  into  this  country,  both  motive 
and  method  were  different.  The  motive  was  technical, — 
the  cultivation  of  a  dexterity  which  might  afterward  be 
applied  in  industrial  operations.  The  term  'educational' 
is  often  given  to  this  earlier  technical  work,  and  was 
sincerely  given  by  the  people  who  introduced  it;  but  they 
meant  something  quite  different  from  what  we  mean 
when  we  use  the  term.  As  opposed  to  the  making  of 

*The  Place  of  Manual  Training  in  the  Elementary  Course 
of  Study,  by  John  Dewey,  Manual  Training  Magazine,  Vol. 
2,  No.  4,  July,  1901,  pp.  193  and  194. 


42          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

something  that  would  have  a  direct  market  value,  the 
work  was  industrially  educative  rather  than  industrially 
productive;  and  the  earlier  teachers  of  manual  training 
devised  abstract  joints  and  exercises  by  way  of  models, 
in  order  to  emphasize  this  difference.  They  feared  that 
the  schools  might  some  time  become  factories,  and  start 
out  on  the  dangerous  road  of  self-support.  But  the  real 
difference  is  more  profound  than  this.  The  earlier  man- 
ual training  was  undertaken  in  order  to  give  a  skill  of 
hand  to  be  used  in  industry.  It  was  a  training  of  the 
hand.  The  later  or  educational  manual  training  is  under- 
taken in  order  to  give  a  skill  of  organism  to  be  used  in 
life.  It  is  a  training  through  the  hand.  The  one  motive 
is  technical.  The  other  is  human."  ' 

While  it  is  true  that  the  emphasis  upon  the  manual 
arts  is  at  the  present  time  in  the  direction  of  the  industrial 
it  is  quite  as  true  that  the  older  emphasis,  viz.,  that  of 
its  educational  and  cultural  value  should  continue  to  be 
prominent.  There  must  be  a  time  when  the  general  is 
considered  rather  than  the  special — when  a  substructure 
must  be  laid  for  future  building.  Such  a  time  in  the 
teaching  of  the  manual  arts  is  found  in  the  first  three  or 
four  years  of  the  child's  school  life.  Here  is  the  place 
then  for  breadth  rather  than  narrowness,  for  some  depth  of 
understanding,  likewise,  rather  than  a  shallow  or  super- 
ficial view. 

'"Cause  and  Effect,"  by  C.  Hanford  Henderson.  Quotation 
found  in  a  bulletin  printed  for  distribution  at  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  Exposition,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1904,  p.  6. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  THE  MANUAL 
ARTS  IN  THE  GRAMMAR  GRADES. 

In  a  later  chapter  this  statement  will  be  found:  "If 
there  is  any  particular  place  in  the  school  process  where 
pupils  should  be  able  to  discover  themselves,  it  is  in  the 
high  school." 

If  this  statement  is  true  the  following  one  is  equally 
well  founded.  The  place  where  pupils  should  begin  to 
realize  the  necessities  of  life  and  to  prepare  themselves  in 
a  practical  way  for  the  requirements  of  some  future  ac- 
tivity is  in  the  grammar  grades. 

We  are  becoming  more  and  more  convinced  because  of 
the  industrial  temper  of  our  people,  and  because  of  the 
economic  necessities  which  force  children  out  of  school 
as  soon  as  the  state  will  permit  them  to  go,  that  the 
vocational  emphasis  in  school  work  must  begin  early 
enough  to  prepare  those  who  are  thus  affected  for  such 
a  contingency.  Much  as  we  may  wish  to  hold  children 
in  school  until  they  are  physically,  mentally,  and  morally 
capable  of  battling  with  life's  problems,  we  must  recog- 
nize the  overwhelming  evidence,  furnished  by  the  number 
of  children  who  leave  school  before  they  reach  high  school, 
that  we  cannot  do  this  for  all.  The  ever  increasing  large 
number  who  drop  out  of  school  during  the  period  between 
14  and  16  years  of  age  seems  to  establish  the  fact  that 

43 


44  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

if  the  school  is  to  help  them  in  any  way  directly  to  per- 
form the  constructive  duties  of  life,  it  must,  in  the  gram- 
mar grades,  do  a  pre-vocational  work  and,  if  possible, 
create  an  industrial  intelligence.  Paradoxical  as  it  may 
seem,  doing  this — the  thing  which  would  seem  to  invite 
boys  and  girls  to  leave  school  early  in  life — may  be  the 
best  means  of  retaining  them  longer  in  school.  For,  the 
fact  that  they  may  see  in  their  school  work  an  opportunity 
to  do  effectively  a  particular  community  service,  may 
persuade  both  them  and  their  parents  to  make  the  neces- 
sary sacrifice  to  enable  them  to  remain  in  school  long 
enough  to  prepare  fully  for  their  chosen  work.  If  this 
should  prove  to  be  the  case,  it  is  not  improbable  that  a 
still  longer  school  attendance  will  be  the  result.  The 
life-giving  qualities  of  even  a  small  achievement  will 
create  a  desire  for  greater  achievement.  Once  the  desire 
to  succeed  is  created,  there  is  scarcely  any  limit  to  the 
expenditure  of  one's  effort  to  reach  the  goal  of  full  ac- 
complishment. 

As  has  been  suggested  in  a  previous  chapter,  the  work 
of  the  first  period,  viz.,  the  first  three  or  four  years  of 
school  life — commonly  called  the  primary  grades — should 
be  based  upon  the  fact  that  the  child's  powers  of  ap- 
propriation are  far  more  developed  than  are  his  powers 
of  expression.  The  sphere  of  thought  and  action  of  the 
six-year  old  is  limited  to  the  home.  With  his  introduction 
into  the  schoolroom,  this  sphere  is  enlarged  to  take  in 
some  of  the  conditions  of  other  homes  than  his  own.  Not 
only  other  homes,  but  conditions,  economic,  social,  and 
industrial,  which  surround  all  homes,  both  those  similar 
to  his  own  and  others,  should  gradually  be  known  to  him ; 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  GRAMMAR  GRADES.  45 

and   the  part  he  is  likely  to  play  under  some  of  these 
conditions  should  be  realized. 

The  work  of  helping  a  pupil  to  realize  this  individual 
responsibility  is  that  part  of  the  teacher's  work  for  which 
he  is  not  specifically  paid,  but  for  which  he  is  none  the 
less  responsible  because  of  this  fact.  It  is  the  part  which 
will  go  far  toward  solving  many  of  the  perplexing  prob- 
lems surrounding  the  schoolroom,  and  particularly  those 
which  may  be  classed  under  the  head  of  vocational 
guidance  about  which  Mr.  Meyer  Bloomfield  has  so 
effectively  written  in  his  little  book,  "The  Vocational 
Guidance  of  Youth."  Many  of  the  things  which  may  be 
called  traditional  in  the  manual  arts  work  should  be  done 
during  this  second  period — the  grammar  grade  period — 
in  one's  school  life.  We  must  not  conclude  because  our 
attention  has  been  drawn  so  forcibly  to  the  need  for 
vocational  education  in  this  period  that  it  is  only  this 
form  of  education  that  is  needed.  Neither  should  we 
conclude  that  all  the  manual  arts  in  grades  5  to  8  in- 
clusive should  be  given  a  decided  vocational  turn  for  all 
pupils.  We  shall  continue  to  have  in  the  school,  even 
though  they  are  in  the  minority,  those  who  are  destined 
to  continue  in  the  school  system  through  the  high  school 
and  into  or  through  the  university.  As  Dr.  Miinsterberg, 
of  Harvard  has  told  us,  it  is  from  this  class  that  we  may 
expect  to  secure  the  future  men  of  remarkable  ability  in 
the  fields  of  science  and  letters.  For  them  then,  much 
attention  should  be  given  to  their  prospective  work  as 
students  along  the  professional  lines.  The  manual  arts 
work  for  such  should  continue  to  be  founded  primarily 
upon  the  manual  training  process  leading  toward  cultural 
•ends.  Either  the  formal  manual  training  of  the  past  must 


46  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

suffice  for  them,  or  else  the  newer  vocational  manual  arts 
must  contain  elements  which  will  make  it  developmental 
for  one  class  as  well  as  another.  It  is  believed  that  this 
form  of  manual  arts  work  may  be  so  organized  that  it 
will  be  educational  in  the  sense  that  it  will,  as  Professor 
William  James  says: 

"Engender  a  habit  of  observation,  a  knowledge  of  the 
difference  between  accuracy  and  vagueness,  and  an  insight 
into  nature's  complexity,  and  into  the  inadequacy  of  all 
abstract  verbal  accounts  of  real  phenomena,  which,  once 
wrought  into  the  mind,  remain  there  as  lifelong  posses- 
sions." 1  He  continues  in  speaking  of  the  manual  arts, 
"They  confer  precision,  because,  if  you  are  doing  a  thing, 
you  do  it  definitely  right  or  definitely  wrong.  They  give 
honesty;  for,  when  you  express  yourself  by  making  things, 
and  not  by  using  words,  it  becomes  impossible  to  dissimu- 
late your  vagueness  or  ignorance  by  ambiguity.  They 
beget  a  habit  of  self-reliance.  They  keep  the  interest  and 
attention  always  cheerfully  engaged,  and  reduce  the 
teacher's  disciplinary  functions  to  a  minimum." 

If  these  good  qualities  may  be  possessed  by  the  voca- 
tional manual  arts  they  may  well  replace  the  former  type 
which  now  so  often  are  classed  as  dilettante.  Then,  too, 
the  administration  of  the  manual  arts  work  in  the  gram- 
mar grades  will  be  simple.  For  both  the  children  who 
will  continue  in  school  work  and  those  who  will  soon 
leave  school  may  profit  by  such  manual  arts.  The  former 

1  Talks  to  Teachers  (Atlantic  Monthly,  March,  1899)  by 
Win.  James.  Found  in  a  bulletin  printed  for  distribution  at  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1904,  Entitled 
"Sloyd.  Theory  and  Practice  Illustrated,"  by  Gustaf  Larsson, 
p.  7. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  GRAMMAR  GRADES.  47 

will  receive  the  benefit  which  comes  from  the  more  versa- 
tile use  of  all  of  one's  faculties,  as  will  also  the  latter 
class  to  be  sure,  but  these  will  also  secure  the  special 
training  which  will  prepare  them  for  a  particular  voca- 
tion. The  expression  'prepare  them'  is  used  because,  as 
Dr.  L.  D.  Harvey  of  Stout  Institute  has  said, 

"The  schools  do  not  give  complete  preparation  for  the 
work  of  life.  Neither  can  they  give  complete  preparation 
for  the  making  of  a  living;  but  they  should  give  that 
which  may  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  necessary  prepa- 
ration for  earning  a  living,  which  can  be  given  through 
systematic  instruction  in  the  schools  better  than  elsewhere. 
Although  this  preparation  may  be  inadequate,  it  should  be 
a  beginning,  at  least,  of  the  complete  preparation  desired. 

"The  importance  of  this  idea  will  be  seen  when  we 
realize  the  fact  that  more  than  90  per  cent  of  the  pupils 
who  complete  the  elementary  course  of  instruction  in  our 
public  school  system  earn  such  living  as  they  have,  through 
some  form  of  manual  labor;  and  that  they  go  out  from 
the  public  schools  to  enter  upon  that  manual  labor  with 
no  specific  preparation  whatever  for  it,  and  with  only  that 
general  preparation  which  the  limited  range  of  work  in 
the  homes  and  the  study  of  books  in  the  schools  have 
provided."  J 

There  are  two  alternatives;  first,  provide  two  kinds  of 
manual  arts  work  for  the  pupils  in  the  grammar  grades, 
and  second,  provide  one — the  vocational  form — and  ad- 
minister it  so  that  it  may  be  equally  beneficial  to  all,  but 
in  different  ways,  if  necessary.  The  latter  is  the  more 
acceptable  both  from  an  economic  point  of  view  and  an 

*  Bulletin  of  the  Stout  Training  Schools,  Vol.  3,  No.  2,  June» 
1908,  p.  4. 


48  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

educational  point  of  view  as  well.  Educationally  it  does 
not  seem  advisable  to  begin  segregation  of  a  radical  type 
as  early  as  the  lower  grammar  grades.  However,  until 
such  time  as  the  vocational  manual  arts  are  taught  to 
serve  satisfactorily  both  classes,  there  should  be  a  segrega- 
tion because  the  two  classes  exist,  and  they  should  each 
be  served  as  far  as  possible  by  the  public  school. 

To  suggest  now  the  possible  means  of  providing 
specifically  for  the  class  of  children  who,  in  all  probability, 
will  not  enter  high  school,  and  who  when  they  leave 
school,  if  cared  for  in  school  as  they  have  been  in  the 
past,  will  enter  the  non-productive  or  so-called  blind-alley 
occupations,  the  following  examples  are  given: 

(1)  In  the  large  city  where  there  may  be  in  any  one 
section  a  sufficient  number  whose  future  occupation  can 
be  determined  with  some  considerable  degree  of  certainty 
— such  determination  being  made  by  conferences  between 
parent,  teacher  and  child — there  may  be  established  a 
vocational  school.  In  Indianapolis,  for  example,  there  are 
several  schools  in  which  the  manual  arts  work  is  typical 
of  some  particular  community  activity  which  furnishes  a 
livelihood  for  the  adult  population.  Such  occupations  in 
these  schools  are  tinsmithing,  sign-painting,  shoe  repairing 
and  clothes  cleaning  and  pressing.  Together  with  this 
manual  work  there  is  a  line  of  regular  school  work  carried 
on,  but  always  conducted  in  such  a  manner  that  if  at 
any  time  a  pupil  chooses  to  continue  in  school  even  on 
into  the  high  school,  he  may  do  so  with  little  or  no  loss 
of  time.  Mr.  Mirick,  assistant  superintendent  of  schools 
in  Indianapolis,  described  the  working  of  these  special 
vocational  grammar  schools  in  a  paper  read  before  the 
Vocational  Education  Round  Table  at  the  meeting  of  the 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  GRAMMAR  GRADES.  49 

Western  Drawing  and  Manual  Training  Association  held 
in  Springfield,  Illinois,  May  5-10,  1911.  In  the  proceed- 
ings of  this  meeting  his  paper  is  abstracted. 

It  would  not  be  possible  always,  especially  in  the  city 
of  moderate  size,  to  establish  special  schools,  but  in  such 
communities  there  could  be  operated  within  a  regular 
school  a  department  which  would  provide  for  the  voca- 
tional manual  arts  work.  In  the  regular  academic  work, 
also,  there  could  be  a  division  or  a  class  whose  work 
would  be  of  the  applied  kind  particularly  designed  to  fit 
individuals  for  an  early  use  of  their  book  work  in  their 
occupation.  In  a  sense  such  a  division,  or  class  would  be 
conducted  somewhat  the  same  as  the  "ungraded"  classes 
are  in  many  cities  at  the  present  time.  If  a  special  in- 
structor could  not  be  provided  for  such  a  group,  at  least 
some  regular  instructor  could  be  found  whose  sympathies 
and  understandings  of  the  needs  of  the  group  would 
enable  him  soon  to  carry  on  the  work  of  the  group  in  a 
satisfactory  manner.  The  necessary  modification  of 
regular  teaching  methods  and  the  change  of  subject  matter 
would  be  made  in  all  subjects  which  the  group  pursued. 
Of  course  under  this  plan  as  in  the  first  one  mentioned, 
the  academic  work  should  be  done  to  permit  an  individual 
to  proceed  into  high  school  work  as  though  he  had 
followed  the  course  of  more  complete  preparation  for 
such  advancement. 

In  the  small  town  it  would  not  be  possible  always  to 
secure  a  sufficient  number  to  form  a  vocational  depart- 
ment, but  always  with  the  proper  incentive  some  special 
attention  could  be  given  to  those  whose  demands  meant 
a  special  rather  than  a  general  training.  A  good  example 
of  what  may  be  done  under  these  circumstances  is  given 


SO          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

in  the  work  which  is  being  carried  on  in  Neenah,  Wis- 
consin, under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Newton  VanDalsen 
of  the  manual  arts  department,  and  Superintendent  E. 
M.  Beman.  Here  boys  are  permitted  upon  a  competition 
basis  in  their  regular  school  work  to  spend  a  half-day  or 
more  in  the  manual  arts  work,  as  a  reward  for  satisfac- 
torily completing  the  week's  work  in  the  regular  school- 
room. Thus  it  is  possible  for  most  if  not  all  boys  of 
normal  ability  to  undertake  a  work  along  any  one  of 
several  lines  which  approaches  closely  to  actual  industrial 
or  trade  conditions. 

It  is  in  the  smaller  towns  where  one  finds  the  least 
effort  to  do  manual  arts  work  of  a  graded  and  progressive 
kind.  Here  there  are  so  many  subjects  to  teach,  and  the 
teaching  force  is  so  limited  that  manual  training  is  either 
neglected  or  found  lacking  in  the  curriculum  of  studies. 
Besides  this,  the  boards  of  education  are  limited  in  means, 
and  often  are  still  unwilling  to  undertake  the  newer  lines 
of  educational  work.  Teachers,  too,  object  to  spending 
their  time  in  teaching  the  subject  for  the  salaries  offered, 
or  refuse  to  spend  a  portion  of  their  time  in  teaching 
manual  arts  and  the  rest  in  teaching  some  other  subject 
in  the  curriculum. 

Manual  arts  in  the  rural  schools  is  a  subject  of  great 
importance.  Comparatively  little  attention  has  been 
given  the  subject  by  those  who  may  best  determine  from 
a  theoretical  point  of  view  the  character  of  the  work. 
Progress  is  being  made,  however,  and  there  is  promise  of 
some  considerable  development  in  this  field  soon. 

One  method  in  organization  which  has  been  success- 
fully tried  in  the  country  school  and  a  somewhat  similar 
plan  which  is  being  operated  in  Wisconsin  in  towns 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  GRAMMAR  GRADES.  51 

located  in  an  agricultural  district  is  worthy  of  mention 
here.  Mr.  C.  S.  Van  Deusen  of  Bradley  Polytechnic 
Institute,  Peoria,  Illinois,  should  be  given  credit  for  the 
conception  of  the  plan.  In  brief  it  is  this:  Two  or 
more  communities  combine  to  employ  an  itinerant  in- 
structor who  gives  a  certain  amount  of  time  each  week 
in  personal  instruction  in  each  of  the  school  districts  in 
a  circuit.  While  conducting  a  class  he  gives  the  neces- 
sary demonstrations  and  explains  instruction  sheets  and 
blue-prints  which  he  leaves  with  his  class  to  enable  in- 
dividuals to  continue  work  in  his  absence  and  until  his 
next  visit. 

By  this  means  the  small  town  may  secure  the  services 
of  a  high  class  instructor  who  could  not  be  employed  by 
any  one  community  alone,  for  the  reason  that  it  could 
not  afford  to  pay  his  salary.  By  some  supervision  on  the 
part  of  a  local  teacher,  as  much  work  and  probably  as 
good  work  can  be  done  as  would  be  accomplished  if  the 
instructor  met  his  class  every  day.  There  is,  therefore, 
offered  the  small  community,  both  from  the  standpoint  of 
quantity  and  quality  of  work,  a  satisfactory  plan  of  con- 
ducting manual  arts  classes.  It  should  be  true  also,  with 
the  kind  of  an  instructor  who  may  be  secured  for  this 
work,  that  the  proper  vocational  emphasis  can  be  given 
to  the  course  of  study.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  well 
to  emphasize  the  importance  of  manual  arts  to  the  rural 
community,  and  the  importance,  also,  of  manual  arts 
teachers  emphasizing  the  agricultural  needs  in  such  com- 
munities by  having  the  projects  in  the  classwork  those 
which  can  be  used  in  a  rural  community. 

Speaking  generally,  now,  regarding  the  possible  ac- 
complishments in  the  manual  arts  work  of  the  grammar 


52  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

grades,  it  may  be  said  that  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  grade 
the  child  should  have  a  fairly  good  knowledge  of  how 
distinct  types  of  people  have  lived  and  are  now  living, 
and  should  be  familiar  with  the  hand  process  of  pro- 
ducing many  things  which  these  people  use  in  their  daily 
lives.  This  means  that  weaving,  modeling,  folding,  scor- 
ing, cutting  and  pasting  have  all  been  done  by  him,  not 
as  an  end  in  themselves  but  as  a  means  to  an  end;  viz., 
the  acquisition  of  both  knowledge  and  skill  which  later 
on  will  serve  as  an  economic  and  social  asset. 

During  the  second  period,  that  of  the  upper  four 
grades,  the  child's  work  should  be  of  such  a  character 
that  he  will  naturally  analyze  his  experiences  of  the  first 
four  grades.  This  he  will  do  with  the  aid  of  the  history 
and  geography  of  this  period,  and  as  a  result  of  this  work 
which  calls  for  analysis,  he  will  grow  into  social  efficiency. 
This  means  that  his  manual  training  work  should  gradu- 
ally become  more  technical.  The  work  of  the  first  four 
years  is  given  a  community  setting;  that  of  the  upper 
grades  is  given  the  individual  setting  or  that  of  a  unit 
in  the  community.  We  should  remember  that  in  these 
grades  and  before  the  high  school  period  is  reached,  the 
great  bulk  of  our  American  youth  drop  out  of  school. 
Here  is  the  place  where  manual  training  teachers  above 
all  others  have  an  opportunity  to  present  school  work  as 
real  work.  Such  a  presentation  must  be  made  in  order 
that  the  boy's  education  may  be  continued  in  school.  Or 
if  not  in  school,  in  some  vocation  for  which  he  has  had 
some  real  preparation  in  school.  You  may  say  that  the 
age  of  the  child  in  these  grades  prohibits  industrial 
methods.  Perhaps  so,  but  it  does  not  prohibit  industrial 
tendencies.  When  the  industrial  education  agitation 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  GRAMMAR  GRADES.  53 

finally  settles  into  definite  molds,  it  will  have  introduced 
into  the  upper  grades  of  our  grammar  schools  a  phase  of 
industrial  manual  training  which  will  save  a  great  part 
of  the  present  waste  product — the  boys  who  leave  school 
because  they  see  in  it  nothing  which  points  the  way  to 
future  life  work. 

Possibly  enough  has  been  said  concerning  the  im- 
portance of  providing  adequately  for  children — the  80  or 
90  per  cent  of  the  elementary  school  population — to  pre- 
pare them  for  a  vocational  work  when  they  leave  school 
at  the  age  of  14.  However,  there  is  a  feeling  abroad 
that  hardly  too  much  emphasis  can  be  placed  upon  this 
advisable  provision.  In  reports  of  educational  commis- 
sions in  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Massachusetts  and  in  Canada, 
which  we  may  study,  and  in  such  books  as  those  on  voca- 
tional and  industrial  education  by  such  prominent  writers 
as  Professors  Cubberley,  Snedden,  Gillette,  and  Hanus, 
Mr.  Arthur  Dean  and  Dean  Eugene  Davenport  of  Illi- 
nois, much  attention  is  paid  to  the  subject  of  vocational 
education. 8  The  work  which  should  be  done  in  the 
public  school  system  for  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  sixth, 
seventh  and  eighth  grades  is  of  unusual  importance  from 
an  economic  point  of  view,  looking  toward  the  stability 
of  our  national  affairs.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the 
affairs  of  the  community  and  those  of  the  individual  in 
his  private  life  are  of  no  less  importance.  Mr.  Cubberley 
in  his  monograph,  "Changing  Conceptions  of  Education," 

8  "The  Changing  Conceptions  of  Education,"  Ellwood  P. 
Cubberley.  "The  Problem  of  Vocational  Education,"  David 
Snedden."  "Vocational  Education,"  John  M.  Gillette.  "Begin- 
nings of  Industrial  Education,"  Paul  H.  Hanus.  "The  Worker 
and  The  State,"  Arthur  D.  Dean.  "Education  for  Efficiency," 
Eugene  Davenport. 


54  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

gives  us  this  significant  summary  of  present  conditions 
concerning  the  work  of  education:  "The  practical  man 
would  make  the  school  over;  the  conservative  school- 
master clings  tenaciously  to  the  past.  Criticism  and 
skepticism  alike  prevail.  At  last  the  tension  becomes  so 
great  that  something  has  to  give  way,  and  progress,  often 
rapid  progress,  ensues.  A  new  viewpoint  is  attained,  a 
new  inspiration  directs  our  work,  new  means  and  methods 
are  introduced,  and  often  a  new  philosophy  actuates  the 
work  of  the  school." 

While  it  is  true  that  books  such  as  those  which  have 
just  been  mentioned  give  us  much  food  for  thought,  there 
is  an  element  about  the  individual  book  which  is  un- 
satisfactory. We  need  either  to  read  a  number  of  books 
on  a  single  subject  or  else  to  otherwise  get  the  views  of 
many  people  occupying  different  positions  in  life,  and 
consequently  viewing  a  subject  from  several  angles. 
Besides  getting  the  views  of  many  upon  the  general  sub- 
ject of  vocational  education,  we  need  also  to  have  a  view- 
point which  will  duly  recognize  manual  training  as  an 
educational  process,  and  will  also  account  for  modifica- 
tions in  present  manual  arts  instruction  intended  to 
recognize  legitimately  the  industrial  processes. 

A  proper  consideration  of  the  relation  between  manual 
training  and  industrial  education  will  show  the  necessity 
of  a  differentiation  in  the  use  of  materials  for  the  two 
sexes  about  the  fifth  or  sixth  grade,  and  in  the  sixth  grade 
we  may  assume  that  boys  are  capable  of  beginning  the 
use  of  woodworking  tools.  One  should  guard  against 
the  dissipation  of  energy  in  the  grammar  grades  too  often 
caused  by  introducing  too  many  media  of  expression.  We 
must  remember  that  our  work  is  tending  toward  definite 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  GRAMMAR  GRADES.  55 

and  fixed  useful  hand  processes;  and  the  old  motto, — 
"A  thing  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth  doing  well" — ap- 
plies to  boys  and  girls  from  eleven  or  twelve  to  fifteen 
or  sixteen  years  of  age. 

In  the  upper  two  grades  of  the  grammar  school,  sew- 
ing, cooking  and  applied  art  work  for  the  girls;  bench 
woodwork  and  art  metal  work,  together  with  mechanical 
drawing,  for  the  boys,  seem  nearly  to  complete  the 
manual  training  teacher's  field  of  possibilities.  There  is 
so  much  in  the  state  courses  of  study  already  either 
adopted  or  definitely  outlined,  that  it  may  be  difficult  to 
add  to  what  these  outlines  suggest.  But  constantly  and 
with  repeated  emphasis  one  should  be  reminded  that  we 
are  liable  to  suffer  from  mental  inertia  if  we  are  not  con- 
tinually searching  for  some  means  of  interesting  and 
holding  the  boys  and  girls  in  these  grades,  who  are  not 
attracted  by  the  present  forms  of  work.  The  public 
school  is  for  the  public  and  not  for  a  small  part  of  the 
public.  Something  needs  to  be  done,  and  therefore  the 
following  proposition  is  made  that  it  may  be  given  con- 
sideration : 

For  those  boys  and  girls  in  the  sixth,  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  who,  because  of  circumstances  resulting  from  any 
conditions — financial,  physical,  mental  or  moral,  due 
either  to  heredity  or  environment — who  cannot  or  prob- 
ably will  not  continue  long  in  school,  and  who  therefore 
must  go  to  work,  something  must  be  done.  This  some- 
thing is  to  teach  them  the  elements  of  business  or  trades. 
The  chances  are  that  this  class  of  children  will  labor  in 
their  home  community;  therefore,  the  activity  of  the 
community  should  be  their  activity.  This  community 
activity  must  be  brought  into  the  school  or  else  those 


56  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

governing  this  activity  must  cooperate  with  the  school  by 
permitting  children  for  part  of  the  time  to  work  in  the 
community  shops,  factories  or  business  houses.  This  idea 
is  already  being  worked  out  in  many  places.  Who  can  say 
that  it  cannot  be  carried  lower  down  in  the  school  process  ? 
Would  it  not  be  better  to  hold  boys  to  practical  arith- 
metic, language,  geography  and  history  work  for  a  half- 
day  and  know  that  they  were  spending  the  other  half  in 
work  which  they  will  in  all  probability  follow  for  the 
remainder  of  their  lives,  than  to  lose  them  from  the 
school  influence  entirely  and  know  that  they  were  be- 
coming lifelong  automatons  in  a  factory  system? 

I  quote  here,  Pres.  L.  D.  Harvey  of  Stout  Institute: 
"I  venture  the  assertion  that  the  three  steps  which 
characterize  the  first  stage  in  the  mastery  of  a  trade,  must 
also  characterize  every  phase  of  work  in  a  manual  train- 
ing course  which  requires  an  intelligent  use  of  tools  and 
material  in  constructive  processes,  in  accordance  with 
sound  educational  principles.  Therefore  it  follows  that 
the  first  stage  in  the  mastery  of  trade  processes,  in  its 
rudimentary  form  at  least,  is  found  in  all  manual  train- 
ing courses  based  on  sound  educational  principles,  and 
that  with  proper  equipment  and  competent  teaching  force, 
the  manual  training  may  be  so  extended  as  to  complete 
the  work  of  this  stage  for  a  considerable  number  of  trades. 
The  second  stage  may  be  completed  in  the  trade  school, 
In  the  shop,  or  in  both. 

"Manual  training  in  its  earlier  stages  must  of  necessity 
be  carried  on  without  any  direct  reference  or  relation  to 
the  development  of  skill  in  any  particular  vocation.  The 
training  which  it  gives  in  close  observation  of  an  object, 
to  be  produced  from  any  given  material ;  the  results  of 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  GRAMMAR  GRADES.  57 

effort  in  the  construction  of  that  object;  the  determination 
of  wherein  the  effort  has  failed ;  the  training  of  the  hand 
to  execute  the  mental  judgments;  furnish  a  preliminary 
preparation  of  high  value  as  a  basis  for  intelligent  work- 
manship which  employs  the  hands  later  on. 

"In  the  later  development  of  manual  training,  it  may 
be  so  organized  as  to  bear  a  very  definite  relation  to 
certain  processes  largely  employed  in  the  industrial  world, 
and  at  the  same  time  secure  the  kind  of  mental  training 
needed  for  the  proper  development  of  the  individual. 

"In  order  to  secure  the  facilities  for  industrial  educa- 
tion which  existing  conditions  seem  to  demand,  the  work 
in  the  elementary  and  secondary  schools  must  be  modified 
through  an  extension  of  the  manual  work  now  being 
carried  on  in  a  large  number  of  schools,  and  yet  in  the 
aggregate,  which  reaches  in  any  effective  way,  compara- 
tively few.  If,  through  these  schools  there  is  to  be  a 
direct  contribution  to  the  field  of  industrial  education, 
the  work  in  manual  training  must  be  organized  with  that 
end  in  view;  not  with  the  distinct  purpose  of  teaching 
trades  or  of  giving  a  limited  line  of  training  in  a  single 
process  to  the  point  where  a  high  degree  of  skill  is  de- 
veloped. This  is  not  necessary  indeed,  in  order  to  make 
the  elementary  schools  a  very  important  factor  in  in- 
dustrial education. 

"The  practical  problem  for  any  community  in  organiz- 
ing work  in  manual  training  in  public  schools,  so  that  it 
may  bear  the  most  direct  and  immediate  relation  to  the 
industrial  efficiency  of  the  boys  on  leaving  school,  is  to 
consider;  first,  the  manufacturing  industries  of  the  com- 
munity where  skill  in  operation  is  required  and  which 
are  likely  to  furnish  employment  for  the  boys  upon  their 


58  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

leaving  school ;  and  second,  to  determine  the  kind  of  train- 
ing through  which  the  boys  will  make  the  greatest  pro- 
gress toward  skill  in  the  special  industry  or  industries. 

"In  case  there  are  no  manufacturing  industries  in  the 
community  in  which  the  school  is  located,  and  it  is  still 
desired  to  give  training  which  shall  count  most  largely 
for  industrial  efficiency  within  the  particular  trades  or 
skilled  industries  which  are  likely  to  prove  most  attrac- 
tive to  the  boys  of  the  community,  those  trades  or  indus- 
tries are  to  be  considered. 

"The  largest  opportunity  for  reaching  the  greatest  num- 
ber who  need  training  for  skill  in  workmanship  and  for 
making  progress  in  the  development  of  that  skill,  lies  in 
the  modification  of  the  courses  of  study  in  the  elementary 
and  secondary  schools,  by  making  provision  for  a  much 
more  extended  line  of  manual  training  work  than  is  now 
offered,  open  to  all,  running  from  the  kindergarten 
through  the  high  school.  We  have  in  existence  the 
organization  for  carrying  on  this  work.  It  may  be  so 
given  as  to  bear  a  direct  and  helpful  relation  to  the  other 
work  of  the  schools,  reinforcing  and  strengthening  that 
work,  while  that  other  work  may  be  of  the  kind  which 
is  of  general  value  for  all  pupils  irrespective  of  their 
vocation  after  leaving  school." ' 

We  have  already  made  very  decided  progress  in  this 
direction  in  a  large  number  of  city  school  systems.  What 
is  needed  is  a  better  organization  of  that  work  with  re- 
spect to  its  value  as  a  preliminary  training  for  efficiency 
in  industrial  processes. 

"Bulletin  of  the  Stout  Schools,  Vol.  3,  No.  2,  June,  1903,  pp. 
6,  7,  8,  and  9. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  GRAMMAR  GRADES.  59 


> 
In   conclusion,   let  me   suggest  these   points   for   your 

careful  consideration: 

1.  Define  for  yourself  and  for  your  constituency  what 
manual  training  should  be  and  do. 

2.  Consider  carefully  its  possibilities  for  preparing  pu- 
pils for  industrial  work  without  narrowing  their  outlook 
on  life  or  shortening  their  preparation  for  it. 

3.  Regard  manual  training  as  a  means  of  expression 
which  shall  have  as  a  motor  development  subject  in  the 
curriculum  both  cultural  and  utilitarian  value. 

4.  Select  material  for  work  which  is  easily  available 
and  which  has  a  local  significance,  or  which  is  of  gen- 
eral use  in  the  trades. 

5.  Use  material  in  a  well  developed  sequential  plan 
of  work  running  through  consecutive  grades.     Make  the 
projects  progressive  and  of  practical  value  for  each  grade, 
taxing  to  some  extent  the  ability  of  the  average  student 
in  the  class. 

6.  Regard  equipment  expense  as  small  and  mainten- 
ance expense  as  almost  negligible  if  pupils  are  allowed 
to  pay  for  the  material  which  is  used  in  articles  they  make 
and  which  belong  to  them. 

7.  Be  sure  to  introduce  the  work  slowly  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  maxim,  "What  is  worth  doing  at  all 
is  worth  doing  well." 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  THE  MANUAL 
ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL. 

In  the  last  chapter  the  statement  was  ventured  that 
the  vocational  manual  arts  in  the  upper  grammar  grades 
might  be  the  means  of  revealing  to  some  pupils  the  ne- 
cessity for  continued  school  work  to  more  fully  prepare 
them  for  their  life  work.  There  will  be  some,  doubtless, 
who  will  reach  the  high  school  principally  as  a  result  of 
the  incentive  for  further  preparation  offered  by  the  man- 
ual arts  and  other  subjects  taught  in  the  grades.  If  given 
a  life  activity  bearing,  they  will  serve  as  an  impetus  for 
further  intellectual  work.  There  will  be  those  too,  who 
enter  high  school  as  a  natural  and  regular  step  in  a  pre- 
scribed course  of  study. 

Hence  in  the  high  school,  as  in  the  grammar  grades, 
there  are  found  children  who  are  seeking  information  for 
immediate  economic  ends,  and  those  also  who  aspire  to 
become  college  and  university  students.  The  problem, 
then,  of  educating  in  the  public  high  school  those  who  may 
be  found  there  is  not  much  different  in  its  inherent  ele- 
ments than  the  problem  which  was  discussed  in  the  last 
chapter  and  which  concerned  two  general  classes  of 
students  comparable  to  the  two  classes  in  the  high  school. 

In  the  methods  to  be  followed  and  in  the  ends  to  be 
sought,  the  problem  is  somewhat  different.  To  begin 

60 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  61 

with  we  must  give  consideration  to  two  important  facts, 
viz: 

First:  The  great  majority  of  those  who  complete  a 
high  school  course  of  study  immediately  thereafter  enter 
upon  the  work  of  some  wage  earning  position. 

Second:  Few  if  any  of  those  who  enter  high  school 
know  at  the  time  of  entrance  what  their  future  work  is 
to  be. 

The  high  school  course  of  study  must  be  constructed 
upon  such  broad  lines  that  it  will  serve  as  a  means  of 
determining  for  each  boy  and  girl  what  he  or  she  can 
best  afford  to  do  as  a  life  work,  and  it  must  also  be 
designed  to  place  at  the  command  of  those  who  are  di- 
recting the  great  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of 
the  world,  individuals  prepared  for  immediate  active  ser- 
vice in  some  life  occupation.  What  then  is  the  natural 
conclusion  to  be  reached  regarding  the  education  of  the 
high  school  boy  and  girl?  It  would  seem  there  can  be 
but  one  answer,  viz:  give  each  individual  the  broadest 
possible  education  in  the  high  school  to  fit  him  for  the 
largest  possible  service  in  the  community  in  which  he  is 
to  live.  To  do  this  we  must  work  on  the  theory  that 
few  if  any  high  school  boys,  in  at  least  the  early  high 
school  period,  are  capable  of  determining  what  their  call- 
ing in  life  will  be.  Assuming  this  to  be  true  the  logical 
thing  to  do  in  outlining  high  school  courses  of  study  is 
to  place  in  every  course  as  many  of  the  liberal  or  non- 
vocational  studies  as  possible  together  with  those  which 
may  be  classed  as  vocational.  This  plan  operates  to  afford 
for  each  individual  student  the  means  of  selecting,  be- 
fore he  reaches  his  senior  high  school  year,  his  chosen 
profession  or  vocation.  If  the  selection  is  that  of  a 


62  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

profession,  then  the  student  plans  to  continue  in  school 
after  he  leaves  the  high  school.  If  the  selection,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  that  of  a  vocation,  the  student  will  plan, 
probably,  to  take  up  his  life  work  immediately  upon  the 
completion  of  his  high  school  course.  In  either  case, 
the  course  of  study  for  the  first  two  or  three  years  is 
such  that,  whatever  his  selection  may  be,  he  will  be  per- 
mitted to  continue  work  without  serious  loss  of  time. 
In  general,  high  schools  now  provide  for  the  boy  who 
will  continue  in  college,  where  he  may  elect  a  course 
leading  to  one  of  the  professions.  It  is  not  generally 
true,  however,  that  the  average  high  school  provides  so 
well  for  the  boy  who  selects  a  vocation. 

If  there  is  any  particular  place  in  the  school  process 
where  pupils  should  be  able  to  discover  themselves,  it 
is  in  the  high  school.  As  a  rule,  the  individual  is  old 
enough  upon  leaving  the  high  school  to  know  what  his 
real  desire  is  concerning  a  future  occupation.  He  has 
determined  definitely  on  many  occasions,  perhaps,  just 
what  his  future  must  be,  as  did  Richard  in  Dickens' 
Bleak  House,  only  to  change  his  mind  within  a  fortnight. 
The  high  school  work,  therefore,  should  be  general  in  its 
scope  and  yet  so  definite  in  its  character  as  regards  any 
particular  course,  that  the  average  boy  finds  himself 
before  he  finishes  his  junior  high  school  year,  if  possible. 
His  senior  high  school  year  should  be  used  particularly 
to  fit  him  either  for  active  life-work  or  college  work. 

No  class  of  school  teachers  has  a  broader  field  in  which 
to  work  than  those  who  teach  the  manual  arts  and  none 
has  more  vital  problems  to  solve.  In  the  old  academic 
studies  conditions  have  become  somewhat  settled  and 
methods  at  least  partially  fixed.  Not  so  with  the  manual 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  63 

arts.  The  problems  presented  in  the  teaching  of  these 
subjects  are  more  numerous  and  more  varied  than  they 
ever  were.  However,  they  are  not  as  difficult,  perhaps, 
as  many  which  have  already  been  solved  by  the  pioneers  in 
those  lines  of  school  work  which  are  generally  classed  un- 
der the  head  of  motor  training.  Thanks  to  such  men  as 
President  Runkle,  Dr.  Belfield,  Dean  Woodward  and 
President  Harvey,  the  work  of  the  missionary  in  manual 
training  is  finished  for  the  most  part.  The  younger  gene- 
ration, of  which  we  are  a  part,  are  not  so  much  concerned 
with  the  question  of  the  introduction  of  manual  training 
as  with  the  question  of  what  kind  of  manual  training  shall 
be  maintained. 

Manual  training  as  it  is  taught  at  present  is  subject 
to  criticism  because  of  its  character.  This  condition,  of 
course,  is  the  result,  in  part,  at  least,  of  the  employment 
of  teachers  who  are  unprepared  for  the  work  in  hand. 
This  is  not  the  principal  reason,  however,  for  chaotic 
conditions.  Manual  training  at  present  is  in  a  formative 
period  of  development.  It  is  transitional  both  as  regards 
subject  matter  and  teaching  method.  No  one  can  say, 
with  any  reasonable  degree  of  certainty,  just  what  should 
constitute  a  course  of  study  in  any  manual  training  me- 
dium. To  a  greater  or  less  degree  we  are  all  experiment- 
ing and  none  of  us  who  are  mindful  of  the  rapidly 
changing  conditions  are  failing  to  be  keen  observers  of 
different  plans  which  are  being  tried  out  in  different 
communities  by  those  who  are  courageous  enough  to  take 
a  step  forward,  even  though  it  be  in  the  dark. 

The  ideas  advanced  by  Dean  Russell  of  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University,  on  the  subject  of  industrial 
education;  the  co-operative  plan  of  education,  which 


64  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

places  a  boy  in  a  factory  one  week  and  in  school  the  next ; 
the  theory  that  trade  education  should  be  introduced  as 
early  as  the  sixth  or  seventh  grade  in  the  school  process; 
the  plan  to  make  all  projects  in  manual  training  courses 
meet  the  social  needs  and  intensify  the  play  of  students; 
— all  these  and  other  experiments  which  are  being  tried 
as  a  means  of  satisfying  the  demand  for  a  change  in  man- 
ual training  are  commanding  our  most  careful  attention. 
It  is  because  there  is  such  a  divergence  of  opinion  regard- 
ing the  content  of  manual  training  that  it  is  subject  to 
criticism  regarding  its  character.  Likewise  it  is  one  rea- 
son why  the  rapid  introduction  of  manual  training  is 
fraught  with  danger.  And  yet,  one  would  not  have 
present  conditions  different  because  it  is  only  by  experi- 
ment and  by  constantly  keeping  in  touch  with  public 
opinion  that  we  may  hope  to  progress  and  make  the  most 
of  our  opportunities. 

Now  it  is  my  purpose  to  show  how  manual  training 
may  be  made  more  completely  to  serve  as  a  preparation 
for  the  industries.  I  shall  do  this  largely  by  making  com- 
parisons and  by  giving  a  personal  estimate  of  values. 
First  of  all,  let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  development 
of  manual  training  in  this  country.  I  make  the  following 
brief  review  in  order  that  we  may  have  a  common  under- 
standing of  the  significance  of  the  present  demand  for 
industrial  education. 

In  1865  John  Boynton  of  Templeton,  Massachusetts, 
gave  $100,000  to  establish  a  free  institute  in  Worcester, 
Massachusetts.  During  the  next  year,  Ichabod  Wash- 
burn,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  established  shops  in 
the  institution,  to  be  used  by  the  students  in  conjunction 
with  skilled  workmen  to  produce  a  commercial  product. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  65 

Milton  P.  Higgins,  who,  for  a  number  of  years  prior  to 
his  death,  was  superintendent  of  the  Washburn  Shops, 
used  these  shops,  in  papers  read  before  many  assemblies, 
as  an  illustration  of  what  he  considered  the  best  plan 
to  promote  industrial  education. 

During  the  year  1868,  Victor  Delia  Voss  introduced 
into  the  Imperial  Technical  School  of  Moscow,  Russia, 
class  instruction  in  the  use  of  tools.  It  was  after  the 
plan  of  this  Russian  school  that  many  of  the  early 
courses  in  manual  training  in  this  country  were  patterned. 
In  1876,  at  the  Philadelphia  exposition,  the  people  of  the 
United  States  viewed  the  results  of  the  Moscow  school's 
work,  and  Dr.  Runkle,  then  president  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology,  almost  immediately  recom- 
mended that  a  course  in  tool  work  be  instituted  there. 
He  saw  what  Victor  Delia  Voss  probably  did  not  see, 
viz :  that  there  was  an  educational  value  in  the  work  aside 
from  the  value  it  had  in  developing  skill  in  tool  processes. 
The  result  of  his  recommendation  was  the  establishment 
of  the  school  of  Mechanic  Arts  as  a  part  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology  in  1877. 

Dr.  Woodward,  in  St.  Louis,  followed  the  lead  of 
Dr.  Runkle,  and,  in  connection  with  the  Polytechnic  De- 
partment of  Washington  University,  was  instrumental  in 
organizing  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training  School  which, 
in  a  way,  was  a  development  of  a  course  in  shopwork 
started  by  him  in  1872. 

In  rapid  succession  manual  training  was  begun  in  Bal- 
timore, Chicago,  Eau  Claire,  Toledo,  New  York  City, 
Philadelphia,  Omaha,  Denver,  Boston,  St.  Paul  and  other 
large  cities. 

Time  will  not  permit  of  a  more  extended  review.     I 


66  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

wish  to  point  out  this  fact,  viz: — That,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Chicago  Manual  Training  School,  directed  for  so 
many  years  by  Dr.  Belfield,  and  supported  by  the  Com- 
mercial Club  of  Chicago,  the  purpose  of  all  this  work  was 
to  train  boys  for  immediate  service  in  the  mechanic  arts 
upon  their  graduation  from  high  school.  Then,  as  now, 
there  was  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  general  public 
that  the  public  school  was  not  doing  its  full  duty  in  the 
education  of  the  youth  of  the  land.  Boys  went  out  from 
the  high  schools  without  any  definite  preparation  for  par- 
ticular service.  History,  therefore,  has  repeated  itself 
and  after  some  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  of  trial  we 
are  told  that  manual  training  is  not  fulfilling  its  mission. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  every  course  of  study  in  the 
high  school  from  the  very  beginning  should  include  both 
vocational  and  non-vocational  subjects.  Specializations 
in  the  early  part  of  one's  high  school  work  cannot  be 
advocated.  It  is  generally  felt  that  it  is  our  duty  to  lay 
foundations  which  are  broad  and  general  at  this  point  in 
the  high  school  process.  However,  with  a  clear  con- 
science, one  can  advocate  an  arrangement  of  a  school 
curriculum  so  that  as  early  as  the  sixth  grade  the  motor 
element  in  school  work  shall  have  a  strong  industrial 
significance.  Indeed  if  this  is  not  done  we  shall  con- 
tinue to  have  the  great  gulf  which  now  exists  between 
the  elementary  school  and  the  high  school  and  in  which 
so  many  lose  themselves  forever  to  school  work. 

Concerning  the  organization  of  the  manual  arts  in  the 
high  school  Professor  Chas.  A.  Bennett  writes  as  follows: 
"It  is  not  of  greatest  importance  that  the  high  school 
graduate  shall  know  the  contents  of  a  certain  number 
of  books,  or  have  power  to  do  a  certain  number  of  specific 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  67 

things,  but  that  he  shall  have  discovered  the  pathway 
which  leads  to  the  field  of  activity  which  he  is  best  en- 
dowed by  nature  to  work  in  is  essential.  He  may  not 
have  observed  the  windings  or  the  end  of  the  pathway 
or  the  breadth  of  the  field,  but  he  should  be  reasonably 
certain  as  to  the  general  direction  in  which  it  lies,  and 
have  already  turned  his  face  that  way. 

"If  this  is  the  chief,  or  even  one  of  the  chief,  functions 
of  secondary  education,  then  it  follows  that  the  high 
school  must  afford  a  wide  range  of  opportunity  through 
a  variety  of  studies  and  occupations.  Indeed,  it  must 
insist  upon  each  pupil  having  a  rich  and  varied  course. 
Especially  is  this  true  for  the  first  two  years  or  more; 
otherwise,  how  can  a  pupil  be  sure  to  discover  himself? 
How  can  he  discover  that  he  was  meant  to  serve  in  any 
particular  one  of  the  great  divisions  of  human  activity 
until  he  has  tried  such  activity,  or,  at  least,  has  obtained 
some  knowledge  of  its  rudimentary  forms? 

"To  afford  such  opportunity  as  is  here  suggested,  the 
school  must  have  a  course  of  study  which  is  both  broad 
and  rich,  covering  not  merely  language  and  mathematics, 
but  history,  science,  and  industry  as  well.  The  course 
must  not  be  dried  up  in  one  part  and  juicy  in  another,  but 
juicy  and  tempting  throughout. 

"One  of  the  chief  obstacles  in  the  way  of  realizing  the 
full  measure  of  results  from  this  great  function  of  secon- 
dary education  is  the  establishment  of  specialized  high 
schools  in  our  larger  cities.  Such  action  affects  not  only 
the  larger  cities  themselves,  but  the  smaller  ones  also 
which  try  to  copy  after  them.  When  there  has  been 
established  in  a  given  city  a  Latin  high  school  and  an 
English  high  school  and  a  manual  training  high  school, 


68          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

the  resulting  grouping  of  studies  for  these  several  schools 
materially  narrows  the  opportunities  of  the  individual 
pupils  in  each  one  of  them.  Or,  if  there  is  no  narrowing 
because  there  was  never  greater  breadth,  we  observe  that, 
whereas  formerly,  or  under  other  conditions,  each  indi- 
vidual was  given  all  the  opportunities  the  city  afforded, 
now  he  has  only  a  fraction  of  them.  Unless  it  can  be 
proven  that  sufficient  opportunity  to  discover  aptitude  is 
given  during  the  several  grades  of  the  elementary  schools, 
and  that  the  pupil  is  developed  enough  to  make  intelli- 
gent use  of  this  opportunity — which  would  be  very  diffi- 
cult to  prove — then  the  plan  of  having  specialized  high 
schools  works  against  the  realization  of  the  highest  ideals 
in  secondary-school  work. 

"The  question  then  arises:  Is  it  not  possible  to  orga- 
nize a  high  school  which  shall  bring  together  the  oppor- 
tunities of  all  these  special  schools  in  a  single  organic 
whole?  When  this  question  shall  have  been  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  and  a  satisfactory  plan  for  such  a  school 
outlined,  then  we  shall  see  more  clearly  the  form  and 
framework  of  a  superior  type  of  school.  Moreover,  this 
school  will  be  as  well  fitted  to  the  needs  of  the  small 
city  as  of  the  large.  Then  the  high  school  in  the  small 
city  can  be,  as  formerly,  the  same  in  kind,  though  not 
in  degree,  as  the  school  in  the  largest  city. 

"Now  that  the  great  value  of  manual  training  has 
come  to  be  recognized  in  secondary  schools,  why  should 
not  all  pupils  have  the  benefit  of  it?  Since  the  manual 
training  high  school  has  so  fully  demonstrated  its  effi- 
ciency, and  in  its  best  form,  has  come  to  be  a  broad, 
general  school  with  emphasis  on  manual  training,  why 
should  not  another  step  forward  be  taken  by  removing 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  69 

that  emphasis,  or,  better  by  emphasizing  each  of  the  par- 
ticular lines  of  work  to  the  same  degree?  Then,  when 
considered  from  the  point  of  view  of  our  initial  proposi- 
tion, we  should  have  a  high  school  of  a  higher  type  than 
is  common  today. 

"To  be  more  specific  with  reference  to  manual  training 
and  drawing,  every  township  high  school  should  have 
a  room  equipped  for  woodworking,  one  for  drawing,  and 
another  for  household  arts.  Under  some  conditions,  two 
rooms  instead  of  three  would  be  sufficient.  The  high 
school  of  a  city  of  from  30,000  to  100,000  inhabitants 
should  have  a  room  for  woodworking  equipped  for  bench- 
work  and  wood-turning;  another  for  work  in  cold  metals 
such  as  filing  and  fitting,  bent  iron  work,  hand-tool  turn- 
ing, and  sheet-metal  work,  including  metal-spinning;  a 
third  room,  of  small  size,  should  be  the  connecting  link 
between  manual  training  and  physics,  and  be  supplied 
with  a  few  machine  tools,  a  forge,  and  tools  and  apparatus 
for  electrical  construction  and  testing.  In  connection 
with  each  of  these  rooms  there  should  be  a  stock-  and 
tool-room  and  a  wash-room.  One  large  room  should  be 
provided  for  needlework,  dressmaking,  and  the  study  of 
textiles,  and  two  for  drawing — freehand  and  mechanical. 
Domestic  science  should  be  classed  with  science  and  con- 
struction, art  and  handicraft — in  fact,  unity  in  the  entire 
school  work  would  yield  remarkable  results.  A  high 
school  for  a  large,  wealthy  city  like  Chicago,  Cleveland 
or  Boston  should  contain,  in  addition  to  what  has  already 
been  mentioned,  rooms  for  forging,  foundry  work,  mach- 
ine-tool work ;  also  extra  space  for  drawing  and  art  work, 
including  the  household  arts,  and  for  household  science — 
in  short,  about  such  an  equipment  as  is  now  found  in 


70  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

the  best  manual-training  high  schools.  Such  a  school 
would  be  of  large  size,  and  only  a  fraction  of  the  students 
would  take  the  maximum  amount  of  work  in  manual 
training.  It  would,  however,  if  properly  balanced,  be 
richer  in  opportunity  than  any  public  high  school  with 
which  I  am  acquainted. 

"Coming  back  again  to  one  of  the  thoughts  already 
touched  upon,  the  best  results  from  a  high  school  of  this 
type,  whether  in  magnified  or  miniature  form,  can  be 
obtained  only  when  every  pupil  is  required  to  do  a  cer- 
tain minimum  of  work  in  each  of  the  fundamental  lines 
of  effort  before  he  is  allowed  to  choose  his  course  or  group 
of  studies.  In  other  words,  before  he  is  allowed  to  choose 
definitely  his  group  of  studies,  If*  must  have  taken  work 
in  English,  possibly  one  foreign  language,  mathematics, 
science,  history,  drawing,  and  manual  training.  Very 
few  options  should  be  allowed  during  the  first  two  years. 
After  the  pupil  has  spent  a  reasonable  length  of  time 
on  each  of  the  fundamental  lines  of  study,  he  is  in  a  far 
better  condition  to  make  an  intelligent  choice  than  he 
possibly  could  have  been,  had  any  one  of  these  been 
omitted."  1 

We  have  thus  far  treated  in  a  general  way  the  elements 
of  the  ideal  school,  and  drawn  certain  conclusions.  I  wish 
now  to  speak  not  so  much  about  the  high  school  giving 
manual  training  as  I  do  about  the  manual  training  de- 
partment in  the  high  school. 

The  mere  fact  that  manual  training  is  generally  con- 
ceded to  have  a  two-fold  object,  viz:  educational  in  the 

1  "The  Organization  of  Manual  Training  in  High  Schools," 
by  Chas.  A.  Bennett,  Manual  Training  Magazine,  Vol.  3,  No. 
3",  April,  1902,  pp.  136-140. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  71 

broad  sense  of  this  term,  and  industrial  in  the  technical 
sense — has  led  to  a  great  diversity  of  opinion  concerning 
the  nature  of  manual  training  courses.  Some  educators 
contend  that  all  manual  training  from  the  kindergarten 
through  the  high  school  must  be  based  upon  psychological 
and  pedagogical  principles.  This  has  been  the  means  of 
forming  different  schools  or  classes  of  manual  training 
teachers,  such  as  the  social-industrial  school,  the  ethical 
culture  school,  and  others,  each  having  as  a  basis  for 
their  theories  and  practice  certain  laws  which  have  been 
established  by  the  psychologists  and  students  of  education. 
Another  class  of  manual  training  teachers — generally 
those  whose  early  training  was  in  the  engineering  schools 
or  in  the  industries — holds  that  manual  training,  espe- 
cially in  the  high  school,  must  be  preparatory  to  engin- 
eering and  industrial  activities.  Consequently,  it  must 
deal  jointly  with  technical  and  industrial  processes,  and 
therefore  develop  skill. 

Regarding  the  subject  of  skill  let  it  suffice  to  say  that 
if  at  any  time  in  the  public  school  work  up  to  the  time 
one  completes  a  high  school  course,  skill  should  be  a  goal 
in  the  manual  arts  teaching,  this  time  is  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  high  school  course,  and  especially  for  those  who 
are  preparing  definitely  to  enter  a  vocation. 

Skill  may  be  defined  as  the  facility  with  which  one 
thinks  and  acts.  Skill  therefore  means  efficiency  and 
counts  in  the  competition  of  business  or  trade.  For  effi- 
cient workers,  therefore,  skill  is  essential. 

As  the  grammar  grades  do  not  aim  to  prepare  efficient 
workers,  it  is  not  skill  here  which  is  most  important  but 
technique.  The  understanding  of  how  to  do  things  and 
the  ability  to  do  them  well  but  not  with  great  facility 


72          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

is  the  object  of  the  grammar  grade  work.  Speaking 
broadly  then  we  may  say  that  the  difference  between  the 
training  for  technique  and  the  training  for  skill  is  at 
least  a  difference  in  the  fundamentals  of  manual  training, 
as  such,  and  vocational  training,  or,  more  specifically,  in- 
dustrial training. 

While  it  is  true  that  manual  training  first  got  its  basic 
principles  from  such  great  educators  as  Froebel  and  Pes- 
talozzi,  who  studied  the  education  of  very  young  children, 
it  is  also  true  that  in  this  country  manual  training  was 
developed  by  men  who  were  primarily  interested  in  manu- 
facture and  the  education  of  mechanical  specialists.  In 
consequence  of  this  last  fact,  in  the  United  States  it  was 
started  in  the  upper  high  school  grades  with  boys  and 
girls  just  entering  into  manhood  and  womanhood.  At 
least  a  degree  of  skill,  therefore,  as  well  as  technique  was 
one  of  the  first  requirements  of  the  manual  arts  in  this 
country.  A  definite  bread-and-butter  value,  therefore, 
was  given  to  the  work  of  the  early  American  manual 
arts  work,  with  the  result  that  elaborate  equipments 
were  installed  for  training  in  several  branches  of  mechan- 
ical work.  The  wood-shop,  forge-shop,  foundry  and  ma- 
chine-shop very  early  became  the  places  for  manual  train- 
ing work. 

Now  this  shop  organization  in  the  manual  training 
school  soon  became  the  beginning  of  one  of  two  things: 
First,  a  training — more  or  less  inadequate  to  be  sure — 
for  the  trades;  or  second,  a  training  in  the  direction  of 
engineering  education.  This  latter  development  came 
when,  as  students  pursued  their  work  in  the  manual  train- 
ing shops  and  as  engineering  work  in  this  country  assumed 
the  dignity  of  a  profession,  there  dawned  upon  the  school 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  73 

authorities  the  possibilities  of  manual  training  as  a  pre- 
liminary step  toward  the  industries  or  engineering. 

Today,  then,  we  have  three  distinct  types  of  high  school 
departments  of  manual  arts  in  America. 

a.  The  manual  training  school  which  bases  its  course 
upon  educational  theory  as  developed  in  schools  of  edu- 
cation in  such  departments  as  those  of  psychology  and 
child   study.     These  schools  produce   teachers   and   phi- 
losophers rather  than  mechanics  and  engineers. 

b.  The  manual  training  school  which  is  located  in  a 
commercial  or   industrial  center  and   is  governed   by  a 
body  made  up  largely  of  men  from  the  industrial  world. 
Schools  of  this  type  have  for  many  years  turned  out  men, 
a  large  percentage  of  whom  have  gone  into  manufactur- 
ing establishments,  but  who  have  been  rather  poorly  pre- 
pared either  as  mechanics  or  men  who  become  efficient 
foremen  and  superintendents. 

c.  The  manual  training  school  which  has  the  same 
relation  to  the  engineering  college  as  the  academy  has  to 
the  college  of  liberal  arts.    These  schools  have  given  to 
their  graduates  a  desire  some  day  to  do  a  high  grade  of 
investigational  or  experimental  work  in  applied  science, 
and  so  they  have  found  a  place  in  colleges  of  science  and 
colleges  of  engineering. 

In  manual  training  shop  courses  in  schools  under 
heading  a,  those  based  on  educational  theory,  one  finds 
work  being  done  which  has  a  distinct  theoretical  basis. 
The  course  of  study  is  based  upon  an  outline  which  in 
many  cases  has  been  furnished  by  the  school's  department 
of  education.  Particular  attention,  therefore,  is  paid  to 
the  working  out  of  educational  theory  in  the  development 
of  motor  activities.  The  subject  of  interest  to  the  pupil 


74  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

is  often  given  first  consideration,  and  in  not  a  few  cases  a 
misconception  of  this  much-abused  word  is  the  result. 
Pupils  are  allowed  to  start  large  projects  without  much 
if  any  preparation  in  tool  manipulation.  Furthermore, 
the  object  of  this  kind  of  work  is  neither  technical  skill 
nor  the  completion  of  objects  which  have  a  distinct  utili- 
tarian, industrial  or  shop  value.  Rather,  the  object  seems 
to  be  the  gratification  of  childish  whims.  In  such  courses 
students  are  liable  to  find  that  they  have  overestimated 
their  ability.  Before  their  undertaking  has  assumed  any 
definite  proportions,  they  are  discouraged  and  the  project 
is  abandoned.  The  value  of  constancy  of  purpose,  which 
always  results  in  the  building  of  character  when  a  prob- 
lem is  continued  to  its  completion,  is  lost,  and,  too,  the 
prime  motive  of  such  a  course,  viz: — -the  working  out  of 
the  child's  own  ideas.  In  fact,  nothing  seems  to  have 
been  gained  in  such  a  process.  It  is  a  question  if  the  stu- 
dent has  not  actually  lost  because  his  lack  of  success  has 
developed  in  him  just  the  reverse  of  those  sterling  qualities 
which  count  for  success  in  men's  achievements. 

The  shops  in  such  schools  are  not  permeated  with  the 
spirit  of  investigation,  neither  are  they  commercial  in  the 
sense  that  the  spirit  of  industrialism  pervades  them.  They 
are  neither  laboratories  nor  shops  in  the  best  sense.  It 
is  possible  that  the  training  received  in  them  leads  to- 
ward pedagogical  research,  but  it  certainly  does  not  lead 
toward  commercial  or  engineering  activities. 

Shop  courses  in  manual  training  schools  of  type  b, 
located  in  industrial  centers,  are  the  ones  having  most 
prominence  at  the  present  day,  principally  because  they 
are  the  oldest.  They  started  as  a  result  of  a  feeling  on 
the  part  of  some  educators  and  many  business  men  that 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  75 

the  ordinary  high  school  course  does  not  give  a  boy  a 
training  which  will  enable  him  to  make  a  living.  Courses 
in  these  schools  are  not  designed  nor  are  they  constructed 
to  teach  trades;  they  are  planned  to  teach  the  funda- 
mentals of  trades  and  to  develop  more  of  the  human 
faculties  than  the  courses  in  the  ordinary  literary  or 
classical  high  school  do.  As  a  rule  they  have  accomplished 
their  purpose.  They  do  not,  however,  unless  the  school 
has  truly  become  a  trade  school,  make  tradesmen.  The 
result  of  this  deficiency  has  led  to  the  present  wave  of 
industrialism  in  education,  which  is  forcing  public  opinion 
in  favor  of  the  trade  and  industrial  school. 

Shop  courses  in  these  schools  are  based  upon  established 
educational  theory  and  upon  fundamental  trade  principles. 
They  have  won,  therefore,  the  commendation  of  educators 
and  manufacturers.  The  mechanical  processes  that  are 
taught  are  generally  the  cause  of  clear  thinking  by  the 
student  and  a  fair  degree  of  technical  skill.  They  usually 
open  the  eyes  of  the  student  to  this  extent:  he  is  able  on 
the  completion  of  his  high  school  course  to  determine 
whether  or  not  he  is  adapted  for  mechanical  pursuits.  As 
a  result  of  this  decision,  most  graduates  from  these 
courses  make  few  serious  mistakes  in  choosing  their 
careers.  They  at  least  serve  as  a  coarse  screen  to  separate 
boys  of  mechanical  bent  from  all  others. 

Concerning  the  schools  in  class  c.  namely,  those  which 
prepare  directly  for  the  engineering  college,  nothing  need 
be  said  here  except  this :  they  do  not  do  the  work  of  the 
engineering  college — even  that  done  by  these  colleges  in 
the  freshman  year.  It  is  also  believed  by  those  best  able 
to  judge,  viz.,  the  manufacturers,  that  they  are  doing 
n  different  line  of  work  than  they  should  to  serve  best 


76  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

the  manufacturer  or  the  individual  who  is  to  begin  in- 
dustrial work  without  further  school  preparation.  The 
deans  of  engineering  colleges  will  also  verify  the  statement 
that  the  manual  arts  work  of  this  class  of  schools  is  not 
the  most  essential  preparatory  work  for  entrance  to  an 
engineering  course.  Mathematics  and  English  are  given 
precedence  over  manual  arts  of  a  special  kind,  or  over  an 
abundance  of  manual  arts  as  a  preparation  for  college  of 
engineering  work. 

We  may  be  led  to  believe  three  things,  then : 

First. — The  manual  arts  work  of  the  first  two  years 
of  high  school  should  be  both  cultural  and  industrial  in 
character  and  represent  as  many  fundamental  mechanical 
activities  as  possible.  It  should  be  taken  by  all  students. 

For  those  who  will  leave  the  high  school  at  the  end  of 
the  first  or  second  year  an  opportunity  for  specialization 
should  be  given. 

Second. — The  manual  arts  of  the  last  two  years  of 
high  school  should  be  specifically  industrial  in  character 
and  should  be  designed  to  serve  particularly  the  needs  of 
those  who  will  enter  vocational  service  on  leaving  the 
high  school. 

Third. — For  those  students  who  will  enter  college  the 
manual  arts  work  of  the  last  two  years  of  high  school  is 
not  important.  Other  subjects  in  the  high  school  curricu- 
lum are  more  valuable  as  a  preparation  for  college  work. 

We  will  consider  specifically  now  the  things  which  the 
high  school  may  do  to  provide  for  the  industries  and  dis- 
cover, if  possible,  if  our  three  findings  just  enumerated 
are  sound.  Let  us  not  suppose  that  the  high  school  has 
not  always  done  much  in  this  direction.  It  has.  How- 
ever, it  may  do  more.  I  have  hinted  at  a  means  of  in- 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  77 

creased  efficiency  in  the  direction  of  industrial  training  to 
take  place  within  the  school.  What  does  this  mean? 
This,  that  the  high  school  should  be  organized  upon  the 
plan  of  a  university  where  provision  is  made  for  a  great 
variety  of  occupations.  Expensive!  Of  course  it  will 
be,  but  not  as  expensive,  I  venture  to  say,  as  the  plan  of 
having  two  or  three  high  schools  in  a  community,  only 
one  of  which  takes  account  of  the  eighty  per  cent  whom 
someone  has  classed  as  the  "hewers  of  wood  and  the 
drawers  of  water."  And  then,  too,  what  is  our  inter- 
pretation of  the  word  expensive?  Do  we  include  cash 
values  only  in  this  term?  If  not,  we  must  substitute  for 
"expensive"  another  word,  even  at  the  expense  of  coining 
one,  for  certainly  from  the  standpoint  of  educational 
efficiency,  community  intelligence  and  citizenship  it  would 
be  the  reverse  of  expensive.  It  would  increase  values  in 
each  and  all  of  these. 

Dean  Eugene  Davenport,  of  the  University  of  Illinois, 
has  become  recognized  as  a  strong  ally  of  those  who  are 
tremendously  interested  in  the  possibilities  of  the  high 
school.  He  is  an  advocate  of  universal  education.  As 
his  plan  is  in  harmony  with  my  own  views  on  the  subject 
in  question,  I  quote  him  as  follows: 

"If  we  will  honestly  take  into  our  high  schools  as  we 
have  taken  into  our  universities  all  the  major  activities 
of  our  modern  life,  splitting  no  hairs  as  between  the 
industrial  and  the  professional,  for  no  man  can  define  the 
difference,  so  imperceptibly  do  they  shade  the  one  into  the 
other — if  we  will  take  them  all  into  the  high  school  as 
we  have  already  taken  them  into  the  universities,  and 
carry  them  along  together,  the  vocational  and  the  non- 
vocational,  side  by  side,  day  after  day,  from  first  to  last, 


78          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

so  the  boy  is  never  free  from  either,  then  will  our  edu- 
cational necessities  be  met  and  we  shall  have  gained  a 
goodly  number  of  substantial  achievements."  J 

Also  as  follows:  "The  best  results  will  always  follow 
when  as  many  subjects  as  possible  and  as  many  vocations 
as  may  be  are  taught  together  in  the  same  school,  under 
the  same  management  and  to  the  same  body  of  men." 

Again  I  refer  to  the  university  and  large  colleges,  for 
it  is  in  them  that  I  find  the  illustration  I  want  to  express 
my  views.  These  institutions  provide  an  equipment  for 
a  diversity  of  interests,  but  it  is  maintained  for  the  few 
who  are  using  it  for  specialization.  Suppose  now  we  con- 
sider corresponding  facilities  for  the  people's  college — the 
public  high  school — where  many  are  cared  for  and  where 
one  gets  a  general  rather  than  a  specialized  education. 

Let  us  organize  our  high  schools  on  much  the  same 
basis  as  they  are  at  present  organized,  except  that  instead 
of  considering  the  four  years  as  a  preparation  for  some 
further  work,  we  make  the  preparatory  period  run  through 
the  first  two  or  three  years  only.  Or  if  we  find  it  im- 
possible for  a  boy  to  remain  in  the  high  school  longer 
than  one  or  two  years,  let  us  make  it  possible  for  him  to 
get  in  that  time  the  work  which  will  help  him  most  in 
the  vocation  he  will  enter.  During  these  years  in  the 
manual  training  and  drawing  departments  we  will  give 
the  several  subjects  as  broad  an  educational  value  as 
possible,  but  at  the  same  time  have  them  so  thoroughly 
industrialized  that  they  will  represent  precisely  the  exist- 
ing industrial  conditions.  By  so  doing  pupils  will  be- 

2  "Industrial  Education  a  Phase  of  The  Problem  of  Universal 
Education,"  by  Eugene  Davenport,  Manual  Training  Magazine, 
Vol.  11,  No.  2,  December,  1909,  p.  144. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  79 

come  acquainted  with  actual  conditions  and  appreciate 
in  a  measure  what  their  future  work  will  be  should  they 
select  as  their  chosen  field  any  one  represented  by  the 
school  courses. 

Now,  in  the  fourth  year,  we  will  in  a  sense  segregate 
those  who  will  continue  school  work  in  colleges  from 
those  who  will  immediately  enter  the  industries  upon 
their  completion  of  the  high  school  course. 

To  this  latter  section  in  the  senior  year  we  will  give  a 
special  course  in  the  vocation  to  be  followed  in  life.  If 
it  is  pattern-making,  we  will  allow  the  boy  to  major,  as 
we  say  in  the  university,  in  this  subject.  If  the  textile 
industry  is  his  selection,  let  us  be  sure  that  the  high  school 
offers  facilities  in  this  field  comparable  with  those  of  the 
industry.  But  in  addition  to  the  special  line  of  work 
chosen  we  will  give  the  pupil  the  advantage  of  the 
English,  mathematics,  history  and  science  which  will  help 
him  most  in  his  future  competition  with  others  who  are 
also  textile  industry  workers,  but  who  have  not  had  the 
advantage  of  the  liberalizing  influence  of  the  school. 

A  quotation  from  Dr.  L.  D.  Harvey,  president  of  Stout 
Institute,  Menomonie,  Wisconsin,  will  be  appropriate 
here: 

"I  believe  it  possible  with  a  course  in  manual  training 
thus  organized  ( Note :  Reference  is  made  to  an  organiza- 
tion similar  to  the  one  herein  outlined)  and  running 
through  the  elementary  and  into  the  secondary  school,  to 
plan  for  special  training  during  the  last  two  years  of  the 
high  school  course  for  the  development  of  skill  in  the 
processes  essential  in  a  particular  trade,  and  thus  without 
taking  more  time  for  the  work  than  would  be  given  to  the 
manual  training  work  proper,  if  the  course  were  extended 


80          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

through  these  two  years  instead  of  substituting  the  trade 
instruction  for  it. 

"It  is  a  beautiful  saying,  that  the  purpose  of  education 
is  to  make  a  life,  rather  than  to  make  a  living.  But  on 
this  mundane  sphere  where  people  have  to  eat,  and  be 
clothed,  and  provided  with  shelter,  the  first  element  in 
the  making  of  a  life  is  making  a  living.  One  may  make 
a  living  without  living  a  worthy  life;  one  may  make  a 
living  and  live  a  worthy  life;  one  cannot  live  a  worthy 
life  without  a  living.  Most  men  in  the  natural  order  of 
things  are  responsible  not  only  for  their  own  living,  but 
for  the  making  of  a  living  for  others  in  order  that  they 
may  make  the  most  of  themselves. 

"From  the  standpoint  of  the  state,  the  necessity  for 
good  citizenship  is  the  fundamental  argument  for  the 
establishment  of  a  public  school  system.  Since  the  making 
of  a  living  is  the  first  essential  in  the  making  of  a  worthy 
life  and  the  first  requisite  for  service  to  society,  it  follows 
that  the  fundamental  argument  for  an  education  from  the 
standpoint  of  society  and  the  individual  is  the  'bread-and- 
butter'  argument.  In  other  wrords,  society  and  the  in- 
dividual demand  that  in  the  organization  of  the  public 
school  system  the  first  aim  shall  be  to  provide  such  a 
variety  of  schools,  such  courses  of  study,  with  such  equip- 
ment, and  such  teaching  force  as  shall  furnish  that  initial 
preparation  necessary  for  the  earning  of  a  living."  ' 

It  is  possible  that  we  shall  be  agreed  upon  the  general 
content  of  this  thesis,  but  those  of  us  who  are  school 
administrative  officers  will  possibly  criticize  it  on  the 

'Bulletin   of  The   Stout   Training   Schools,   Vol.   3,   No.   2, 
June,  1908,  pp.  4  and  10. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  81 

ground  of  its  being  impossible  from  the  standpoint  of 
administration.  For  such  I  suggest  this  as  a  solution: 

Permit  the  high  school  to  cooperate  with  the  manu- 
factories and  industrial  establishments  of  the  community, 
the  school  to  continue  to  be  the  adjudicator  of  the 
academic  work,  and  the  factory  to  supply  the  industrial 
conditions  and  adjust  itself  somewhat  to  the  conditions 
of  those  of  school  age.  This  plan  for  adults  is  already 
in  operation  in  the  University  of  Cincinnati.  For  public 
school  children  a  somewhat  similar  plan  is  being  tried  in 
the  East  at  Fitchburg,  and  Beverley,  Massachusetts,  and 
other  cities.  Nearer  home,  we  have  at  Freeport  and 
Moline,  Illinois,  school  and  factory  cooperation  which 
promises  to  be  successful.  Time  alone  can  give  us  an 
opportunity  of  deciding  whether  those  in  charge  are  on 
the  right  road.  Whatever  may  be  the  outcome  of  plans 
of  this  kind  I  cannot  feel  that  they  will  meet  with  the 
same  success  as  the  one  offered  in  my  first  suggested  plan. 
You  will  say,  however,  that  the  university  organization  in 
the  high  school  is  only  applicable  if  at  all  to  the  large 
cities.  If  this  is  true,  then  I  suggest  this  modification — 
one,  by  the  way,  which  is  now  operative  in  certain  small 
high  schools  in  Wisconsin : 

Organize  within  the  small  high  school  manual  training 
and  industrial  work  which  shall  be  guided  by  some  large 
center — a  normal  school,  a  large  high  school,  or,  the 
university.  Let  the  director  in  this  center  cooperate  both 
with  the  local  school  board  and  with  the  industries  of  the 
community  in  determining  the  kind  of  work  to  be  intro- 
duced. Select  some  individual  who  will  be  competent  to 
teach  the  course  outlined  and  give  him  a  circuit  in  which 
he  will  have  a  sufficient  number  of  schools  to  occupy  his 


82          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

time.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  plan  would  be  much  more 
feasible  than  the  one  which  necessitates  the  manual  arts 
work  of  the  pupil  to  be  done  in  a  factory,  because  it  pro- 
vides for  a  more  general  supervision  and  a  control  by 
several  interests  instead  of  one ;  also,  because  the  instructor 
would,  in  all  probability,  be  selected  partially  because  of 
his  knowledge  of  school  conditions,  whereas  the  factory 
instruction  is  likely  to  be  given  by  a  factory  operative  or 
an  individual  who  will  be  unable  to  see  the  large  problem 
and  coordinate  the  work  of  the  shop  with  that  of  the 
school. 

However  this  may  be,  one  feature  of  any  of  the  three 
plans  suggested  should  be  emphasized  as  imperative,  viz: 
Put  the  special  work  followed  by  the  pupil  under  the 
supervision  of  the  leaders  in  the  industry  represented. 
I  do  not  believe  we  shall  ever  get  industrial  conditions 
to  obtain  in  the  school  if  we  allow  schoolmen  to  organ- 
ize the  work  of  industrial  courses,  unless  they  have  had 
the  special  industrial  training  needed.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  maintain  that  the  executive  heads  in  the  school 
system  must  remain  in  general  control.  Germany  and 
England  give  us  our  best  illustrations  of  combined  school 
and  community  management  in  which  there  is  co-operation 
between  the  school  authorities  and  the  industrial  leaders. 

There  is  at  least  one  other  cooperation  between  the 
school  and  the  world  outside  of  the  school  which  needs 
emphasis.  Important  as  the  cooperation  between  the 
school  and  the  industries  is,  of  no  less  importance  is  the 
co-operation  between  the  school  and  the  farm.  From  the 
vocational  point  of  view,  if  there  could  be  the  same  op- 
portunity for  initiative  on  the  part  of  the  boy  and  girl 
in  the  congested  communities  that  there  is  for  the  boy 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  83 

on  the  farm,  and  that  there  was  formerly  for  all  boys 
and  girls,  we  might  not  need  the  manual  arts  in  the 
city.  It  is  to  supply,  in  a  way,  the  independent  activity 
of  the  boy  on  the  farm  that  manual  training  is  put  into 
the  city  school.  Especially  at  this  time  when  agriculture 
is  becoming  such  an  important  vocational  subject  in  the 
high  school,  an  effort  should  be  made  to  use  the  manual 
and  domestic  arts  to  supplement  and  to  extend  the  work 
of  agriculture.  There  is  no  better  field  from  which 
the  manual  arts  teacher  may  select  projects  for  con- 
struction than  that  of  the  home  and  particularly  the 
home  on  the  farm.  The  prospective  teacher  of  agri- 
culture or  the  teacher  of  manual  arts  might  well  prepare 
himself  to  teach  the  other  of  these  two  subjects. 

I  have  just  one  more  suggestion  to  make  in  conclusion, 
viz: 

Whatever  means  we  take  to  make  our  high  school 
manual  training  more  nearly  prepare  for  the  industries  let 
us  be  sure  that  in  season  and  out  of  season  and  all  the 
time  we  introduce  into  our  wrork  design  which  shall 
eventually  make  our  industrial  products  compare  favor- 
ably from  an  artistic  point  of  view  with  those  of  foreign 
producers.  What  a  great  humiliation  it  is  that  we,  the 
American  people,  leaders  in  so  many  lines,  are  so  de- 
ficient in  industrial  aesthetics.  The  designers  in  American 
industries  are  not  trained  in  America;  indeed  they  are 
not,  as  a  rule,  Americans.  What  a  wonderful  change 
can  be  made  in  this  condition  in  the  next  decade  if  we 
will  lay  emphasis  upon  good  design  in  all  our  work.  I 
believe  there  is  even  greater  need  for  study  of  design  on 
the  part  of  manual  arts  teachers  than  for  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  industrial  processes. 


84  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

In  conclusion,  now,  I  wish  to  quote  the  father  of  manual 
training  in  this  country,  Dr.  C.  M.  Woodward,  formerly 
principal  of  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training  School,  and 
dean  of  the  Engineering  College  of  Washington  Uni- 
versity, where  he  suggests  the  lines  of  work  to  be  carried 
on  in  a  high  school  department  of  manual  arts. 

Dr.  Woodward  writes:  "The  shops  I  recommend  are 
woodworking  shops  in  which  ordinary  bench  tools  are 
used,  where  a  variety  of  hard  and  soft  lumber  is  wrought 
upon,  and  where  the  fundamental  principles  of  workman- 
ship are  taught;  secondly,  a  wood-turning  shop,  which  is 
always  a  pattern-shop,  where  opportunities  for  learning 
the  complete  alphabet  of  steps  in  wood-turning  are  pro- 
vided; thirdly,  the  first  metal  shop,  in  which  metals  are 
heated  and  thereby  made  ductile  and  pliable. 

"The  fundamental  processes  of  a  forging  shop  are  very 
few  in  number,  altho  their  applications  are  countless;  but 
these  fundamental  processes  must  be  learned  step  by  step, 
studying  all  the  while  the  degree  and  influence  of  heat, 
and  the  behavior  of  iron  and  steel  when  heated,  and 
heated  to  different  degrees.  There  is  so  much  in  a  forg- 
ing exercise  for  the  learner  to  master  that  it  is  better  to 
divide  it,  the  first  step  being  a  question  of  form  and  of 
manipulation;  the  second,  a  question  of  heat  and  the 
flow  of  metal  under  the  hammer.  The  first  can  be 
learned  with  an  extremely  ductile  metal  like  lead;  the 
second,  with  hot  iron  and  then  with  hot  steel. 

"The  fourth  shop  is  the  molding  and  casting  shop, 
where  the  use  of  patterns  is  fully  illustrated  and  the 
methods  of  making  molds  are  mastered  so  far  as  the 
elements  go.  The  process  of  molding  and  casting  deter- 
mines many  of  the  details  of  patterns,  and  the  pupil 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  85 

learns  how  patterns  must  be  divided;  what  cores  are  for, 
and  how  they  are  made;  and  what  core-prints  are,  and 
how  they  are  used. 

"The  most  expensive  shop  of  all  is  the  fifth,  in  which 
the  use  of  tools  for  cutting  and  fitting  the  harder  metals 
without  the  assistance  of  heat  is  learned.  This  is  ordi- 
narily known  as  the  'machine  shop,'  inasmuch  as  the  toots 
are  largely  machine  tools  of  considerable  complexity,  altho 
there  is  always  a  certain  proportion  of  bench  work  con- 
nected with  all  machine  work.  It  is  in  this  shop  that  we 
find  the  most  elaborate,  the  highly  scientific,  appliances, 
and  it  is  a  fine  educational  achievement  for  the  pupil  to 
master  the  separate  tools,  to  learn  their  uses  and  their 
requirements.  The  whole  theory  of  metal-chipping,  filing, 
drilling,  planing,  and  turning  is  new  to  him,  and  intensely 
interesting.  Accordingly,  the  shop  should  be  equipped 
with  certain  standard  tools  for  the  processes  I  have  named. 
The  lathes,  drills,  and  planers  need  not  be  large,  but  they 
should  be  ample  for  such  exercises  as  are  found  useful 
in  the  course  of  instruction.  As  the  pupil's  mastery  grows, 
he  sees  more  quickly  the  logic  of  a  machine,  and  he  thinks 
over  again  the  thoughts  of  the  designer  or  inventor,  and 
appreciates,  as  he  never  appreciated  before,  the  high 
qualities  of  the  skilled  expert. 

"The  machine  shop,  like  all  other  shops,  should  be 
fitted  for  regular  sections  of  students  numbering  not  over 
twenty-four,  nor  should  it  accommodate  less  than  twenty. 

"I  have  not  time  to  dwell  upon  the  importance  of 
mechanical  drawing,  which  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
should  accompany  shopwork.  The  drawing  easily  outruns 
the  shops.  It  goes  into  fields  too  difficult  and  too  com- 
plicated for  the  shop  teacher  to  follow,  but  it  should  be 


86          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

thoro  and  thoroly  intelligible  at  every  step;  not  for  art 
work  merely,  nor  for  the  crafts,  but  for  both,  and  for 
the  culture  of  the  geometric  imagination.  So  long  as 
drawing  is  based  upon  principles  which  can  be  clearly 
stated  and  understood,  it  is  within  the  reach  of  every 
rational  pupil." 4 

It  probably  is  true  that  Dr.  Woodward's  list  of  shops 
and  shop  processes  to  be  included  in  the  manual  arts  of 
the  high  school  is  not  complete  enough  for  those  who 
would  make  the  public  high  school  meet  as  fully  as  pos- 
sible the  industrial  needs  of  the  present.  It  certainly  is 
true,  however,  that  those  enumerated  by  him  are  among 
those  for  which  provision  should  first  be  made.  Others 
may  be  added  or  substituted  depending  upon  the  local 
demands  of  the  community. 

Allow  me  just  a  closing  word  in  summarizing  the  four 
most  important  points  which  I  have  endeavored  to  make 
in  this  chapter : 

First. — An  intermediate  school  to  provide  for  those  in 
the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  who  now  take  advantage 
of  their  first  opportunity  to  leave  school — the  time  when 
the  State  ceases  to  compel  them  to  attend  school,  should 
be  established. 

Second. — Organize  one  or  more  general  high  schools 
in  a  community  instead  of  two  or  three  special  high 
schools.  In  this  school  during  the  first  three  years  compel 
all  pupils  to  take  at  least  a  minimum  amount  of  manual 
work  which  is  both  good  manual  training  and  good  in- 
dustrial work.  Also  provide  for  specialization  along  in- 
dustrial lines,  especially,  in  the  fourth  year. 

4  Addresses   and    Proceedings   of   the    National    Educational 
Association,  1905,  pp.  266-270. 


MANUAL  ARTS  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL.  87 

Third. — In  case  the  general  high  school  organization  is 
not  feasible  or  possible,  provide  for  specialization  in  in- 
dustrial work  by  a  school-factory  cooperation  or  by  the 
circuit  instructional  method  wherein  supervision  will  be 
obtained  from  recognized  authorities  representing  both 
the  school  and  industrial  interests,  and  provision  for 
maintenance  will  be  made  through  an  educational  ex- 
tension department. 

Fourth. — Inject  into  all  drawing  and  shopwork  a  large 
amount  of  sane  design. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  TEACHER  AND  THE  SUPERVISOR  OF  MANUAL  ARTS. 

The  discussion  upon  the  qualifications  of  the  teacher 
and  the  supervisor  of  manual  arts  has  been  reserved  for 
the  last  chapter  because  of  all  that  has  been  said  in  this 
book,  it  should  be  the  most  important  part,  and  conse- 
quently may  be  considered  as  the  climax  of  the  whole. 

Past  experience  has  shown  that  where  the  manual  arts 
have  been  continued  in  a  community  they  have  oftentimes 
been  poorly  taught.  When  an  analysis  of  failures  has 
been  made  it  may  be  safe  to  say  that  in  most  cases  they 
have  been  due  largely  if  not  wholly  to  inefficient  teaching. 
Perhaps  not  a  larger  number  of  failures  have  occurred  in 
the  conduct  of  manual  arts  work  than  in  work  carried  on 
in  other  branches  of  school  during  a  similar  period  of 
development.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  in  the  experi- 
mental stage  in  the  teaching  of  any  subject  mistakes  will 
be  made  which  will  result  in  criticism,  if  not  in  the 
abandonment  of  the  subject  for  a  time.  Notwithstanding 
this  fact,  however,  it  would  seem  that  now  after  nearly 
thirty  years  of  manual  arts  in  this  country,  and  when  the 
subject  is  so  well  established  and  so  generally  taught, 
there  should  be  few,  if  any,  attempts  to  organize  and 
teach  the  subject  without  ultimate  success. 

And  yet  there  are  at  least  two  very  well  defined  reasons 
why  we  may  expect  quite  as  much  criticism  of  manual  arts 


THE  TEACHER  AND  THE  SUPERVISOR.  89 

teaching  within  the  next  few  years  as  has  been  made 
during  any  similar  length  of  time  in  the  past,  unless  we 
recognize  present  limitations  and  future  needs.  Naturally 
enough  one  need  is  an  understanding  of  the  very  rapidly 
changing  conditions  which  have  been  set  forth  in  this 
volume  and  which  it  attempts  to  explain  in  such  a  way 
that  adjustments  may  be  made  to  guard  against  failures 
or  even  partial  failures  in  the  future.  A  second  reason 
is  the  great  dearth  of  teachers  who  are  qualified  to  con- 
duct properly  manual  arts  classes,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
manual  arts  department  where  several  subjects  in  the 
manual  arts  are  taught. 

It  may  be  advantageous  to  have  before  us  some  of  the 
reasons  for  past  failures  before  we  consider  the  qualifica- 
tions of  the  teacher  and  the  supervisor.  Two  very 
striking  deficiencies  in  the  average  manual  arts  teacher 
are  apparent  to  one  who  has  visited  schools  and  who  has 
an  acquaintance  with  many  who  are  responsible  for  the 
teaching  or  the  supervision  of  the  manual  arts. 

First,  I  would  say  that  a  very  limited  preparation  either 
for  the  general  work  of  a  teacher  or  for  his  specific  work 
has  been  the  cause  of  many  disappointments  of  boards  of 
education  in  the  work  accomplished  by  the  ones  who  were 
employed  as  proficient  manual  arts  teachers.  The  demand 
for  manual  training  has  been  so  great  that  men  and 
women  have  been  drafted  into  service  who  have  had  only 
a  very  meagre  preparation  for  their  work.  In  the  grades, 
especially  in  the  primary  school  period,  the  regular 
teachers  have  been  expected  to  teach  manual  training 
without  any  preparation  whatsoever  for  the  work.  They 
have  been  dependent  upon  supervisors'  outlines  and  a  very 
few  supervisors'  meetings  to  give  them  any  ability  to 


90  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

either  handle  the  materials  used  or  to  comprehend  the 
scope  of  manual  training.  In  the  grammar  grades  the 
same  thing  has  been  true  except  in  a  comparatively  few 
cases  during  the  past  few  years  when  special  teachers 
have  been  employed.  These,  as  a  rule,  until  very  recent 
years  have  had  little  or  no  training  in  the  manual  arts, 
and  almost  never  any  training  in  the  teaching  of  the 
manual  arts. 

In  the  high  school  it  is  easy  to  trace  developments. 
The  first  teachers  here  were  either  mechanics  or  graduates 
of  schools  of  technology.  Both  proved  inefficient  because 
they  could  not  teach  the  subject  which  they  presumably 
knew  well.  They  were  individuals,  too,  who  had  almost 
no  appreciation  of  design  and  no  ability  as  designers. 
Next  came  the  normal  art  school  graduate  who  directed 
work  in  the  art  crafts;  or  the  graduate  of  a  school  in 
which  the  work  in  a  department  of  education  had  been 
the  individual's  major,  because  of  which  fact  it  was 
supposed  he  would  be  a  good  teacher.  Such  preparations 
were  found  to  be  inadequate  for  the  field  of  manual  arts 
teaching. 

Finally,  after  the  manual  training  high  schools  and 
normal  schools  were  established,  their  graduates  were 
drawn  upon  to  occupy  this  field.  The  large  majority  of 
the  present  manual  arts  teachers  are  those  who  have  re- 
ceived their  complete  school  training  in  such  institutions. 

The  present  success  of  the  manual  arts  is  largely  due 
to  the  teaching  which  has  been  done  by  men  and  women 
of  this  class.  Whether  this  success  has  been  great  or 
small  it  is  certainly  true  that  in  the  past  a  teacher's  short- 
comings have  been  due  to  a  very  limited  academic  train- 
ing. This  class  of  teachers  has  found  it  difficult  to  cope 


THE  TEACHER  AND  THE  SUPERVISOR.  91 

with  their  colleagues  in  matters  of  general  education 
because  of  a  narrow  point  of  view.  Herein  is  to  be 
found  one  of  the  needs  of  the  future.  It  is  not  enough 
for  the  teacher  to  be  proficient  in  his  own  field;  he  must 
also  have  a  sufficient  training  in  the  several  branches  of 
educational  work  to  be  capable  of  commanding  the  respect 
of  his  colleagues  and  his  pupils.  Unless  he  can  perform 
well  and  with  considerable  skill  the  operation  in  which 
he  expects  high  standards  of  his  class,  he  cannot  hope  for 
their  confidence  nor  will  he  get  it.  Not  infrequently 
teachers  have  been  found  incompetent  as  technicians.  It 
is  difficult  to  find  a  teacher  who  can  teach  well  more 
than  two  or  three  of  the  manual  arts  subjects.  Never- 
theless, one  is  often  expected  to  handle  all  the  subjects 
in  a  department  where  mechanical  drawing,  woodwork 
and  metal  work  are  taught.  One  argument  for  the 
tradesman-teacher  in  our  high  schools  is  his  technique  and 
skill. 

A  third  cause  for  past  difficulties  is  closely  related  to 
that  of  poor  preparation.  It  is  the  course  of  study  which 
has  been  followed  blindly.  Without  an  understanding 
of  child  life  and  its  significance  in  school  work;  with 
scarcely  any  knowledge  of  conditions  aside  from  those 
affecting  the  handling  of  materials,  it  is  little  wonder 
that  the  term  "course  of  study"  has  been  a  misnomer  in 
the  manual  arts  work.  As  was  explained  in  a  previous 
chapter  the  so-called  courses  have  ranged  between  those 
which  are  characterized  by  their  extreme  formalism,  and 
those  which  are  the  expression  of  the  whims  of  children. 

A  fourth  element  in  some  of  the  unsuccessful  teaching 
of  the  past  has  been  an  over-equipment  or,  at  least,  one 
which  would  be  regarded  as  extraordinary  by  one  who 


92          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

really  knew  how  to  meet  conditions.  Communities  have 
therefore  lost  confidence  in  the  manual  arts  teacher  who 
thus  failed  in  an  important  part  of  his  work. 

The  time  given  to  manual  arts  also  has  been  so  small, 
especially  in  the  high  school,  that  nothing  more  than 
amateurish  results,  from  the  stand  point  of  journeyman 
labor,  were  possible.  It  is  this  standard  which  the 
average  citizen  has  used  in  judging  the  results  of  the 
manual  arts.  If  in  any  appreciable  way  we  are  to  em- 
phasize subject  matter,  and  secure  results  which  will 
make  it  possible  for  boys  and  girls  to  do  a  vocational 
work  when  they  leave  school,  more  time  must  be  de- 
manded in  that  part  of  the  course  where  skill  rather  than 
technique  is  necessary,  or  the  manual  arts  rather  than 
manual  training  receives  the  emphasis. 

It  must  be  apparent  from  the  five  reasons  above  given 
for  some  of  the  mistakes  of  the  past,  that  we  cannot  ex- 
pect in  our  public  schools  to  comply  with  the  demands 
for  vocational  education  unless  more  attention  is  given  by 
the  prospective  manual  arts  teacher  to  his  preparation  for 
teaching.  This  must  involve  both  a  broad  education  and 
a  specific  training  in  the  particular  shopwork  or  drawing 
which  he  is  to  teach.  Fortunately  schools  for  the  train- 
ing of  manual  arts  teachers  have  been  established  and  men 
who  employ  teachers  are  demanding  of  them  both  general 
education  and  particular  professional  training.  With  an 
understanding  of  the  needs,  it  is  hoped  that  the  demands 
will  be  met. 

In  the  minds  of  many  it  is  a  question  whether  any 
school  can  supply  the  shop  conditions  of  a  commercial 
shop.  It  is  under  commercial  shop  conditions  that 
one  should  be  trained  who  expects  to  teach  in  the  in- 


THE  TEACHER  AND  THE  SUPERVISOR.  93 

dustrial  education  field.  While  it  is  true  that  the 
teacher  of  industrial  work  should  be  trained  as  an  in- 
dustrial worker,  and  probably  true  that  the  public  school 
manual  arts  teacher  should  have  had  some  industrial  ex- 
perience, it  is  likewise  true  that  both  of  these  teachers 
must  be  trained  in  the  art  of  teaching.  We  do  need 
practical  shopmen  and  draftsmen  in  our  schools,  but  we 
need,  quite  as  much,  the  man  of  broad  academic  training, 
and  the  one  who  can  teach  what  he  knows. 

The  first  training,  however,  secured  as  a  result  of  a 
good  college  course  with  emphasis  on  the  elements  of 
teaching  and  with  special  practice  in  the  technical  work 
to  be  taught  must  be  considered  as  only  a  beginning,  for 
the  real  teacher  is  always  a  student.  As  has  been  sug- 
gested, to  be  a  master  of  the  processes  of  preparing, 
shaping,  fastening  and  finishing  the  materials  with  which 
the  teacher  is  to  deal  in  his  classes  is  not  enough.  It  is 
to  be  assumed  also  that  the  manual  arts  teacher  in  any 
grade  of  work  is  cooperating  with  the  other  teachers  in 
the  educational  process  to  keep  the  content  of  a  pupil's 
work  well  defined  and  to  permit  all  teachers  to  assist  in 
securing  certain  general  school  standards.  The  shop 
teacher  and  the  drawing  teacher  each  has  an  opportunity, 
which  he  cannot  afford  to  lose,  to  aid  in  securing  clear- 
cut  descriptive  work  in  English,  and,  by  concrete  illus- 
tration, to  make  mathematics  understood. 

There  are  four  fields  of  study  which  should  be  of 
constant  interest  to  the  manual  arts  teacher.  They  are 
psychology,  education,  sociology  and  technology  or  in- 
dustry. 

By  means  of  correspondence  with  other  teachers, 
through  the  medium  of  the  best  literature,  and  as  a  result 


94          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

of  connection  with  associations  he  will  supplement  his 
first  knowledge  and  verify  his  daily  classroom  experience 
in  the  work  of  a  student-teacher.  This  means  continued 
study  which  acts  and  reacts  upon  one;  first,  as  an  in- 
dividual associated  with  those  of  immature  mind;  and 
second,  as  one  who  keeps  abreast  of  the  times  by  keeping 
in  close  touch  with  the  work  of  the  world. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  one  should  be  a  specialist  in 
the  several  branches  above  mentioned,  but  he  must  be 
familiar  with  the  fundamentals  in  each  and  with  that 
portion  of  each  which  he  may  use.  Hence,  in  psychology 
it  is  the  scientific  basis  of  thought  and  action ;  in  sociology, 
the  materials  of  social  inquiry,  and  their  economic  and  in- 
dustrial uses;  in  education,  the  theory  determining  the 
scope  of  manual  training;  and  in  engineering  and  in- 
dustry, the  usable  engineering  theory  regarding  the  prin- 
ciples of  construction  in  each  branch  that  is  needed.  The 
particular  study  and  practice  by  which  the  manual  arts 
teacher  should  continue  to  make  advances  will  be  found 
in  the  fields  of  education  and  industry. 

To  still  further  emphasize  what  has  been  said  about 
the  manual  training  teacher,  may  I  give  a  brief  statement 
of  the  qualities  which  Henry  Turner  Bailey,  once  super- 
visor of  drawing  in  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  now  editor 
of  the  School  Arts  Book,  says  are  of  unquestionable  im- 
portance as  qualifications  of  the  manual  arts  teacher? 

At  the  top  of  the  list  he  places  the  following  personal 
elements:  A  charm  of  manner,  a  personal  magnetism. 
To  these  we  might  add  "a  saint-like  smile,"  to  use  the 
words  of  the  great  Uno  Cygnaus.  He  must  be  optimistic, 
sympathetic,  and  have  an  objective  as  well  as  a  subjective 
view. 


THE  TEACHER  AND  THE  SUPERVISOR.  95 

Next  in  order  Mr.  Bailey  places  as  a  qualification,  ex- 
ecutive ability,  control  and  insight.  Someone  has  said, 
"the  teacher  of  the  manual  arts  must  have  many  details 
in  mind  but  he  must  reduce  them  to  order  and  get  pupils 
to  "take  responsibility.  He  must  have  a  policy  planned 
and  kept  in  mind  which  will  result  in  pupils  taking  the 
initiative.  Like  the  supervisor  who  seeks  to  direct  him, 
he  must  have  tact  and  geniality  with  his  pupils,  which 
will  serve  him  as  lubricants  for  official  machinery  warm 
(sometimes  hot)  with  the  friction  of  misunderstanding. 
Above  all  things  he  must  have  common  sense." 

Concerning  the  education  of  the  manual  training 
teacher  Mr.  Bailey  says  he  must  have  a  general  culture 
based  upon  both  scholastic  and  technical  instruction  and 
experience.  The  school  to  him  must  be  a  research  field, 
and  he  must  see  in  it  a  place  where  the  child  reacts  upon 
an  immediate  environment — where  the  child  lives,  not 
prepares  to  live. 

Another  very  important  factor  in  the  organization  and 
maintenance  of  manual  training  is  the  supervisor.  There 
was  a  time  when  he  was  unknown,  but  now  even  in  the 
smaller  towns  and  surely  in  the  cities  he  is  indispensable, 
provided  he  is  the  right  man  in  the  place.  Manual  train- 
ing today  has  arrived  at  the  stage  where  it  needs  stand- 
ardizing. No  one  can  help  in  this  process  as  well  as  the 
supervisor.  We  need,  besides  the  town  or  city  supervisor, 
a  state  supervisor  or  inspector.  It  will  not  be  many  years 
before  he  will  appear  upon  the  scene.  If  we  look  to  our 
mother  country,  England,  we  find  what  state-wide  In- 
spection means — in  general,  to  learn  lessons  in  organiza- 
tion which,  in  turn,  mean  higher  efficiency  and  economy. 

The  good  supervisor  must  first  of  all  be  a  good  teacher. 


96          MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

Not  all  good  teachers,  however,  will  make  good  super- 
visors. Besides  being  a  good  teacher,  he  must  be  sym- 
pathetic, both  as  a  student  and  as  a  business  man.  He 
must  be  an  organizer.  Perhaps  the  power  to  get  all  parts 
of  a  great  system  to  work  in  harmony,  and  each  part  to 
have  a  particular  duty  for  which  some  one  individual  will 
be  responsible  is  the  large  work  of  the  supervisor.  Cer- 
tainly this  function  is  one  which  requires  the  greatest 
tact  and  diplomacy.  He  must  be  a  man  of  purpose  and 
determination,  but  very  often  he  must  secure  results  by 
taking  steps  and  making  moves  with  the  greatest  of  care, 
and  sometimes  he  must  study  his  problem  from  every 
point  of  view.  Not  infrequently  he  will  secure  what  he 
wants  only  after  great  delay  and  an  unwise  expenditure 
of  money.  But  he  can  afford  to  wait  and  to  allow  others 
to  take  the  initiative,  even  at  the  expense  of  immediate 
results,  if  in  the  end  he  "accomplishes  things." 

In  Stout  Institute  Bulletin  No.  4,  for  December,  1908, 
page  41,  we  read  in  reference  to  the  supervisor:  "His 
work  divides  itself  into  three  stages:  first,  preliminary 
organization;  second,  class  organization;  and  third,  the 
re-organization  period.  The  preliminary  organizing 
should  be  done  either  before  the  close  of  school  or  before 
or  during  vacation.  If  it  is  the  case  of  installing  a  plant, 
this  becomes  not  only  the  most  important  part  of  an  or- 
ganizer's work,  but  the  severest  test  of  his  ability.  In 
fact,  many  an  aspirant  for  manual  training  honors  has 
lost  or  won  during  these  preliminary  weeks." 

By  preliminary  organization  is  meant  that  planning 
which  must  be  done  during  the  vacation  preceding  a  school 
term,  and  often  the  readjustment  of  these  plans  at  the 
beginning  of  a  term  when  the  actual  conditions  under 


THE  TEACHER  AND  THE  SUPERVISOR.  97 

which  plans  must  operate  can  be  determined.  There  is 
the  outline  of  courses  of  study,  the  planning  for  teachers 
meetings,  the  securing  of  teachers,  and  the  purchase,  dis- 
tribution and  classification  of  material  which  must  be  at- 
tended to  during  this  period  and  before  actual  class  work 
begins. 

The  class  organization  work  runs  through  the  school 
year,  but  is  most  urgent  at  the  beginning  of  school  work. 
It  is  the  plan  of  work  which  accommodates  the  time 
schedules,  takes  account  of  classroom  conditions,  in- 
terprets the  strength  of  teachers  and  the  thousand-and-one 
things  which  make  for  a  perfect  system,  where  energy 
will  not  be  wasted,  but  where  there  will  be  conservation 
of  material,  pupils  and  teachers  throughout  the  year. 

The  reorganization  work  may  come  at  any  time  but 
usually  when  some  unexpected  situation  arises  making  the 
regular  plan  ineffective.  It  will  always  come  at  the 
beginning  of  a  new  term  in  any  year  after  the  first  one 
when  the  preliminary  plans  and  regular  classroom  plans 
were  made.  In  the  work  of  reorganization  the  supervisor 
again  shows  his  ability  to  use  tact,  for  he  must  often 
change  the  plans  of  others  dependent  upon  his  own.  In 
doing  so  he  must  keep  in  mind  both  ends  of  the  course 
which  he  has  planned.  He  must  not  let  trying  contingen- 
cies permanently  cloud  his  broad  view  of  the  year's  work 
as  a  whole,  but  he  must  sacrifice  here  and  expand  there 
to  the  end  that  the  original  plan  will  be  carried  out  with 
as  few  interruptions  as  possible. 

The  plan  referred  to  must  not  be  a  yearly  program 
from  which  one  cannot  vary.  On  the  other  hand  it  must 
be  an  outline  of  desired  accomplishments;  the  result  of 
much  thought  as  to  the  abilities  of  both  pupils  and 


98  MANUAL  ARTS  FOR  VOCATIONAL  ENDS. 

teachers,  and  of  the  possibilities  and  limitations  due  to 
the  number  involved.  The  plan  must  be  one  which  can 
be  and  will  be  changed,  but  which  operates  more  or  less 
constantly  as  does  any  well  designed  and  well  kept 
machine.  Like  the  machine,  the  plan  must  be  one  which 
will  accommodate  itself  quickly  to  sudden  changes.  Parts 
will  become  over-strained  and  possibly  will  break;  re- 
pairs must  therefore  be  made,  and  made  so  quickly  that 
the  whole  may  continue  to  give  out  a  product  which  will 
pass  inspection  both  as  to  quality  and  quantity. 

The  plan  then  must  be  general  in  character,  and  yet 
so  well  defined,  and  its  results  from  week  to  week  so  well 
recorded  that  at  any  time  one  may  determine  just  what 
must  be  done  next  in  order  that  the  plan  as  a  whole  shall 
continue  intact.  Not  only  this  but  the  plan  must  be 
easily  read  and  followed  by  anyone,  for  new  teachers 
must  take  the  place  of  old  teachers  and  such  interruptions 
must  not  affect  the  continuance  of  operation. 

Of  all  the  elements  which  contribute  to  the  success 
of  such  a  plan,  not  the  least  will  be  the  careful  records 
kept  by  the  supervisor,  the  helpful  suggestions  which  he 
will  give  as  a  result  of  a  systematic  weekly  study  of  these 
records.  True  it  is  then  that  he  must  be  a  most  versatile 
individual;  the  best  of  teachers,  a  business  man  of  un- 
questionable ability,  and  a  promoter  who,  because  of  his 
ability  to  handle  men  and  things,  knows  nothing  but  that 
which  spells  success. 

Concerning  the  supervisor,  Dr.  James  P.  Haney,  for  a 
long  time  supervisor  of  drawing  and  manual  training  in 
New  York  City,  says: 

"Among  the  elements  which  make  for  successful  super- 
vision, the  attributes  of  the  supervisor  himself  must  be 


THE  TEACHER  AND  THE  SUPERVISOR.  99 

given  an  important  place.  He  stands  as  the  professional 
adviser  of  both  superintendent  and  grade  teacher,  and 
must,  in  his  attitude,  reveal  his  professional  pride  in  his 
calling.  He  must  be  a  teacher  in  the  broad  sense  of  the 
term,  one  who  leads  others  to  a  realization  of  the  ex- 
cellence and  worth  of  the  subject  he  presents;  a  teacher 
not  necessarily  demonstrating  some  lesson,  but  one  acting 
as  an  animating  agent,  aiding  not  only  by  direct  sug- 
gestion, but  by  general  guidance  and  stimulus  to  higher 
professional  life."  J 

"The  supervisor,"  says  Henry  Turner  Bailey,  "whom 
teachers  respect  and  whose  visits  they  enjoy,  the  one  for 
whom  they  will  work  overtime  and  never  tell,  the  super- 
visor whom  the  children  love  and  for  whose  sake  they 
will  do  anything,  is  one  who  serves  consistently,  sym- 
pathetically, abundantly."  : 

I  am  sure  we  may  agree  with  those  whom  I  have 
quoted  and  with  others  whose  views  I  have  used  that 
for  the  manual  training  teacher  and  supervisor  the  road 
to  success  is  long  and  sometimes  tedious,  but  with  the 
goal  at  the  end — viz.,  the  child  and  his  needs — kept  in 
mind,  he  will  always  be  furnished  with  an  incentive  to 
lead  him  on,  not  blindly,  but  with  a  vision  which  makes 
both  class  interests  and  individual  necessities  keenly  felt 
and  met  by  his  associates  as  well  as  himself. 

'"The  Supervisor,"  by  James  Parton  Haney,  Year  Book; 
Council  of  Supervisors  of  The  Manual  Arts,  1903,  p.  15. 

'"The  Supervisor's  Chief  Business,"  by  Henry  Turner 
Bailey,  The  Applied  Arts  Book,  Vol.  2,  No.  2,  October,  1902,  p. 
34. 


Books  on  the  Manual  Arts 

HANDWORK  IN  WOOD.     By  WILLIAM  NOTES. 

A  handbook  for  teachers  and  a  textbook  for  normal 
school  and  college  students.  A  comprehensive  and 
scholarly  treatise,  covering  logging,  sawmilling, 
seasoning  and  measuring,  hand  tools,  wood  fasten- 
ings, equipment  and  care  of  the  shop,  the  common 
joints,  types  of  wood  structures,  principles  of  joinery, 
and  wood  finishing.  304  illustrations — excellent  pen 
drawings  by  Anna  Gausmann.Noyes. 


WOOD  AND  FOREST.     By  WILLIAM  NOYES. 

This  book  brings  into  attractive  and  convenient 
form  much  information,  valuable  to  the  woodworker 
and  lumberman,  which  has  not  previously  been  ob- 
tainable except  at  great  expense.  It  treats  of  the 
structure  of  wood,  properties  of  wood,  the  principal 
species  of  American  woods  and  concludes  with  five 
chapters  on  the  forest.  It  is  richly  illustrated, 
chapter  three  alone  containing  335  illustrations  of 
67  species  of  wood. 

PROBLEMS  IN  FURNITURE  MAKING. 

By  FRED  D.  CRAWSHAW. 

The  revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  this  well- 
known  book  contains  43  full-page  working  drawings 
of  articles  of  furniture.  Every  piece  shown  is  suit- 
able for  construction  in  high  school  classes,  and  is 
appropriate  and  serviceable  in  the  home.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  working  drawings,  there  is  a  perspective 
sketch  of  each  article  completed.  There  are  36 
pages  of  text  giving  notes  on  the  construction  of 
each  project,  chapters  on  the  "Design,"  and  "Con- 
struction" of  furniture,  and  one  on  "Finishes."  The 
last  chapter  describes  15  methods  of  wood  finishing, 
all  adapted  for  use  on  furniture. 


Books  on  the  Manual  Arts 

PROJECTS  FOR  BEGINNING  WOODWORK  AND  MEGHAN- 
ICAL  DRAWING.     By  IRA  S.  GRIFFITH. 

A  work  book  for  the  use  of  students  in  grammar 
grade  classes.  It  consists  of  working  drawings  and 
working  directions.  The  projects  are  such  as  have 
proven  of  exceptional  service  where  woodworking 
and  mechanical  drawing  are  taught  in  a  thoro, 
systematic  manner  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades. 
The  50  projects  in  the  book  have  been  selected  and 
organized  with  the  constant  aim  of  securing  the 
highest  educational  results.  The  book  is  especially 
suited  for  use  in  connection  with  "Essentials  of 
Woodworking"  by  the  same  author. 

ADVANCED   PROJECTS   IN    WOODWORK.        By    IRA   S. 

GRIFFITH. 

This  book  is  similar  to  "Projects  for  Beginning 
Woodwork  and  Mechanical  Drawing,"  but  is  suited 
to  high  school  needs.  It  contains  50  plates  of  draw- 
ings of  well  designed  projects — serviceable  pieces 
of  furniture. 

ESSENTIALS  OF  WOODWORKING.      By  IRA  S.  GRIFFITH. 

A  textbook  written  especially  for  the  use  of  gram- 
mar and  high  school  students.  A  clear  and  compre- 
hensive treatment  of  woodworking  tools,  materials, 
and  processes,  to  supplement,  but  not  to  take  the 
place  of  the  instruction  given  by  the  teacher.  The 
book  does  not  contain  a  course  of  models;  it  may  be 
used  with  any  course.  It  is  illustrated  with  photo- 
graphs and  numerous  pen  drawings. 

PROBLEMS  IN  WOODWORKING.      By  M.  W.  MURRAY. 

A  convenient  collection  of  good  problems  consist- 
ing of  forty  plates  of  working  drawings  of  problems 
in  bench  work  that  have  been  successfully  worked 
out  by  boys  in  one  of  the  grades  from  seven  to  nine, 
inclusive. 


Books  on   the  Manual  Arts 


PROBLEMS  IN  WOOD-TURNING.      By  FRED  D.  CRAWSHAW. 

In  the  first  place  this  is  a  book  of  problems — 2$ 
plates  covering  spindle,  face-plate,  and  chuck  turn- 
ing. In  the  second  place  it  is  a  textbook  on  the 
science  and  art  of  wood-turning  illustrated  by  fifty 
pen  sketches.  It  gives  the  mathematical  basis  for 
the  cuts  used  in  turning.  In  the  third  place  it  is  a 
helpful  discussion  of  the  principles  of  design  as 
applied  to  objects  turned  in  wood.  It  is  a  clear, 
practical  and  suggestive  book  on  wood-turning. 

PROBLEMS    IN    MECHANICAL    DRAWING.       By  CHARLES 

A.  BENNETT. 

A  students'  textbook  consisting  of  80  plates,  classi- 
fied into  groups  according  to  principle  and  arranged 
according  to  difficulty  of  solution.  It  furnishes 
teachers  of  classes  beginning  mechanical  drawing 
with  a  large  number  of  simple,  practical  problems 
which  have  been  selected  with  reference  to  the  for- 
mation of  good  habits  in  technique,  the  interest  of 
the  pupils  and  the  subjects  generally  included  in  a 
grammar  and  first-year  high  school  course.  Each 
problem  is  given  unsolved  and  therefore  in  proper 
form  to  hand  to  the  pupil  for  solution. 

CORRELATED  COURSES  IN  WOODWORK  AND  MECHAN- 
ICAL DRAWING.  By  IRA  S.  GRIFFITH. 
This  is  designed  to  meet  the  every-day  need  of 
the  teacher  of  woodworking  and  mechanical  drawing 
for  reliable  information  concerning  organization  of 
courses,  subject  matter  and  methods  of  teaching.  It 
covers  also  classification  and  arrangement  of  tool 
operations,  shop  organization,  design,  stock  bills, 
cost  of  materials,  records,  equipment,  maintenance, 
etc.  It  is  based  on  sound  pedagogy,  thorough  tech- 
nical knowledge  and  successful  teaching  experience. 
It  is  practical. 


Books  on  the  Manual  Arts 

WOOD  PATTERN-MAKING.    By  HORACE  T.  PURFIELD. 

A  thoroughly  practical  and  well  written  textbook 
and  shop  manual  for  high  school,  trade  school,  tech- 
nical school  and  college  students. 

HANDWORK  INSTRUCTION  FOR  BOYS.     By   DR.   ALWIN 

PABST.  Translated  by  Bertha  Reed  Coffman. 
A  philosophical  and  historical  review  of  manual 
training  for  boys  and  a  discussion  of  the  systems 
in  vogue  in  the  several  European  countries  and  in 
America,  by  the  director  of  the  normal  school  for 
teachers  of  manual  training  at  Leipsic.  With  plates 
showing  typical  manual  training  workshops. 

BEGINNING  WOODWORK.     At  Home  and  in  School. 

By  CLINTON  S.  VANDEUSEN. 
A  full  and  clear  description  in  detail  of  the 
fundamental  processes  of  elementary  benchwork  in 
wood.  This  description  is  given  through  directions 
for  making  a  few  simple,  useful  articles,  suitable 
either  for  school  or  home  problems.  The  book 
contains  more  than  one  hundred  original  sketches 
and  ten  working  drawings  by  Edwin  V.  Lawrence. 

WOODWORK  FOR  SCHOOLS  ON  SCIENTIFIC  LINES. 

By  JAMES  THOMAS  BAILY  and  S.  POLLITT. 

The  American  edition  of  an  English  book  contain- 
ing 120  practical  problems,  many  of  which  have  been 
designed  to  correlate  mathematics  and  physical 
science  with  manual  training. 

SELECTED   SHOP   PROBLEMS.     By  GEORGE  A.  SEATON. 

A  collection  of  sixteen  problems  in  woodworking 
made  to  meet  the  needs  of  busy  teachers  of  manual 
training.  Each  problem  has  been  put  to  the  test  and 
has  proven  satisfactory  to  the  teacher  who  designed 
it  and  to  the  pupil  who  made  it. 

PUBLISHED  BY 

The  Manual  Arts  Press,  Peoria,  Illinois 


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